Slave Hunting
by Writer With Sprite
Summary: Alex and Eagle are taken by slave traders who roam the United Kingdom looking for people to kidnap and sell into the human trafficking industry. Given a sentence of 48 hours until they're sold, the two must learn how to work together to survive.
1. A Side Of Kidnapping For Breakfast

Summary: Alex Rider and Eagle are kidnapped by slavers, a new group of criminals rising quickly in the British nation. The goal of the slavers: To brainwash Alex and Eagle and make them slaves. Good thing K-Unit is coming to their rescue... as soon as they can realize who took our missing heroes.

A/N: Yes, I know I have unfinished stories. Yes, they will be updated. Yes, this story idea wouldn't leave me alone. See the bottom A/N for those...

WARNINGS: Torture, swearing, and more warnings to come. NO SLASH.

Disclaimer: I own the ideas for this story. The word 'slavers' was first seen in the Eleventh Plague. Anthony Hortwitz owns Alex Rider and K-Unit. I, however, own all the fun for this current story. Want to archive it or borrow an idea? Check with me first.

Now, onto the fun... Oh and yes, thanks to RAINSTRIPE for her help! The unique line break belongs to her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ we were never here- Penguins ~~~~~~~~~~

Seventeen year old Alex Rider groaned as he awoke, wondering why he'd been able to sleep so long. He felt groggy but didn't know why. He'd gotten extra sleep, hadn't he? It took him almost twenty seconds to be able to assess where he currently was. He sighed. Maybe he should go back to MI6 to work on his reaction time.

Alex blinked three times, wondering where the hell he actually was. This didn't look like any place he'd ever known before. He swallowed and tried to figure it out before he realized that he was moving.

_Shit_.

Wherever he was, he was in a moving vehicle. Well, either a moving vehicle or moving boat. He felt like it could be a moving boat, but wasn't sure what. He attempted to move and found that he could actually do so, much to his surprise. After he sat up, he found that he was on a bed, surrounded by a blank and empty room. The bed wasn't much to look at, but it did have a blanket and folded sheets on one side.

He attempted to stand up before remembering that he was in a moving vehicle, and found himself suddenly flying forward, realizing that he hadn't planned on moving. "Eagle?" he asked, blinking twice. He felt sick to his stomach from moving. He felt like they were on a boat; he had to fight to keep himself from falling over.

Eagle, perhaps the most hyperactive member of K-Unit, was lying unconscious on the floor. _When __was __the __last __time__ he__'__d __seen __that __man __unconscious__? _Alex thought, then gave up. Eagle was up and active _all_ of the damn time.

Cub groaned as he moved over, surprised. He had not seen the K-Unit in forever. "Eagle!" he hissed. Cub himself was now seventeen, getting ready to graduate next school year. He paused for a minute. What did he know about K-Unit? Not much. He guessed their ages to be about 23-25 the time he'd been in the SAS, so probably anywhere from... he didn't even know, now.

Swearing colorfully, he shoved Eagle against the wall. Screw secrecy, he needed answers. "Eagle. Wake up!" he hissed.

Eagle blinked awake then and from the way he slowly moved Cub realized that Eagle had only been pretending to be asleep. He was going to kill Eagle for that later, but right now there were much more pressing matters. "Where are we?"

"What happened?"

"Don't play shit with me, I know you've been awake, what happened?" Alex asked.

"...I got hit from behind by someone. They shoved a rag under - who are you?" Eagle said. He blinked twice. "Holy shit, Cub? That you? Like, Breacon Beacons Cub?"

"No, Santa Claus," Alex deadpanned. He had stopped working for MI6 on his 17th birthday after Blunt had resigned. He hadn't heard that name in... god, a long time. He blinked. Had his seventeenth birthday really only been three weeks ago?

"Like Christmas?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Why are you here?"

"Why are you here?" Eagle responded. Alex exhaled as he saw him go on the defensive.

"I'm not the enemy, Eagle. You don't have to resist giving me answers," Alex retorted.

"... But I don't want to give away _any_ answers. Man, I feel like fucking shit," Eagle swore as he picked himself up and began to move methodically around the room.

"Tracing it for bugs?"

Eagle nodded. "Yup, especially termites. I hate those the most."

Shaking his head, Alex methodically began searching the other side of the room. When he met Eagle in the middle, he said, "Clear." Eagle nodded, and then shook out the pillow covers before re-making the bed.

Alex shook his head. "You don't miss anything, do you?"

"It's kept me alive as youngest of the K-Unit," Eagle muttered. "So... How old are you now?"

"Seventeen."

"So you were what... fifteen at Breacon Beacons?"

"Fourteen," Alex corrected. "I hadn't had my birthday."

"Fourteen? What'd you do to piss your father off?"

"... my uncle died, and MI6 needed a place to put me," Alex lied. "Where's K-Unit?"

Eagle sighed. "We're off-duty right now. Fox is now MI6, and we've got this guy as his replacement - Dolphin. Snake and him share an apartment. Wolf and I share - oh, shit. Wolf hasn't been here, has he?"

Alex shook his head.

"I hope he wasn't kidnapped. Have you tried the door?" Alex thought he heard a trace of worry in Eagle's voice, but the SAS man quickly buried it.

Sighing, Alex got up and walked towards the door. As he expected, it was locked, and not only was it locked, it felt like there was something stuck behind it. "Yes, and it's not moving one inch."

Eagle nodded and attempted to move it, getting the same result. He shrugged. "I figured you were right but had to try -" he paused. "Hear that?"

"Yup," Alex said, hearing the footsteps. "I'm sleeping, are you?"

Eagle nodded, curling back up in his corner. Alex attempted to hide the pound-pound-pound of his heart that threatened to let everyone know he was alive and awake. The door moved and opened.

"Well, well, well. The slaves are still sleeping. Wake them up, Michael."

Cub's breathing barely quickened as he heard the large man barrel into the room, quickly tearing Eagle out of his semi-comfortable position on the floor.

"...Get away," Eagle said. Alex knew he was only pretending to be sleepy. Or at least, he hoped so. He tried to breathe normally but still felt the thud-thud-thud of his chest. He wondered how they would respond to Eagle's command.

Alex begrudgingly had to admit that Eagle was good at appearing to be half-asleep. He wondered mildly where the rest of K-Unit was and what had happened to them, if everything.

"Did you say go away?" Michael threatened. Alex swallowed, trying to keep himself from panicking.

Eagle blinked awake slowly as he felt a hand rest on his arm. "Who..." he asked sleepily.

"You shouldn't speak," the man said as he backhanded him roughly, pushing him up against the door. "You got that, you fucking punk? You shouldn't speak."

"...I'm not a fucking punk," Eagle said. Alex could tell that he was trying to act slower than he was, hoping that would give him an advantage. "Don't know what that is," he added in a whiny voice. It took Alex's entire willpower not to snort at that.

"Don't SPEAK!" the second man roared. Alex opened his eyes to see Eagle shoved against the wall, a knife against his throat. That was when he decided to "wake up." It was action time.

"Don't hurt him," Alex pleaded. "Leave him alone."

The man snorted. "Can't do that. We're your slave owners, boy. It's the 21st century and slavery is now one-hundred-and-ten percent legal, and we are going to sell you as merchandise."

Alex found himself looking to meet Eagle's eyes, thinking one thing and one thing only: shit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ we were never here- Penguins ~~~~~~~~~~

"No, Wolf. He isn't over here. Dolphin hasn't seen him either, within the last twenty-four hours," Snake said. "...Wolf, yesterday at three thirty I was at the dentist... I'm not doing fucking dental care on myself. How is that even relevant? Hang on," he said as he answered the door. He hung up when he saw it was Wolf.

"He's still not back yet," Wolf growled. "I'm going to fucking shoot him, bury his body, and chop him up into little bite-sized pieces."

"Eagle?" Dolphin asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, fucking Santa Claus," Wolf swore as he answered his phone. "Hello?"

"Is this 'Wolf'?"

Wolf frowned. "Who am I speaking too?"

"You are speaking to Eagle's new life. Please have a nice day. We hope that you are okay without seeing him again, as he will be unable to talk to you for the rest of this lifetime."

With that, the phone went dead in Wolf's hands. "Fucking shit," he swore.

Snake's mouth dropped open.

Dolphin simply said, "I'm calling the sergeant."

And to think that it was only 7:00 in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ we were never here- Penguins ~~~~~~~~~~

I hope that you liked it. As my friend pointed out, yes, I do have stories that are not updated. When you review, specify which story you'd like updated next out of my list and I'll add it to the waiting list of updates!

Challenges:

Why was only Eagle kidnapped out of K-Unit? Where was he kidnapped, and how?

How was Cub kidnapped?

What do their captors want?

How long has it been since they were missing?

Well, I'm off to bed. Hope you all enjoyed and hit that SUBMIT button on the review!


	2. Apples & Waterboarding

A/N: Oh my, it is an update!

Disclaimer: See Ch1 for disclaimer and information.

Special thanks to Rainstripe and NightmareWorld for their help.

* * *

Eagle groaned as he felt the RV move again. He had determined that was what they were being transported in. It didn't take him long to decide that he was never going to go on a vacation in an RV, he decided. He had once thought it would be cool, but now realized that it was not going to be a good idea for him. He could stand boats just fine but right now realized he'd rather be on an enemy cruise ship than this stupid RV.

That was probably because the enemy cruise ship would mean he was away from these psychopaths, Eagle silently mused as he ran his hand through his hair. He glanced at Cub, who was still asleep on his bed. Why the kid would sleep so easily, he would never know. Then again, he supposed it had something to do with being drugged. He was pretty sure they'd drugged the kid to sleep.

The door opened and Eagle was grabbed roughly and shoved out into the hallway. "Where is it?" the man demanded.

Eagle blinked. Twice. "Where is what?" He asked. The question was so random that he didn't know what the man was even asking.

"The apple the kid took from the dining room."

"I don't know," Eagle responded honestly. They were getting this worked up about a damn apple? What would they do if someone tried to escape?

"Where is the apple the kid took from the dining room?"

"I. Don't. Know," Eagle responded, this time with clenched teeth.

The man didn't like Eagle's response and backhanded him. "Shut the hell up," he said. "You're our slave. You don't talk back, you understand?" With that, he was roughly thrown into the room.  
"Get the hell up, kid," the man responded even as he dragged a sleeping Alex from the bed.

Eagle groaned. He was pretty sure it had been at least 24 hours since they had been captured because he felt like shit. He knew he could survive longer than 24 hours without sleeping – he'd done it in RTI – but he needed at least an hours' sleep.

Then again, he always felt like this on drugs, too.

"You," the first man said, grabbing Alex, "are going to get punished."

Alex groaned as his body hit the floor, feeling the jarring impact of the wood. "Go to hell," the muttered, half-awake.

"Tsk, tsk," the first man said, "We can't have you swearing like that. A family will not tolerate that."

"A family?" Eagle asked, blinking twice. What did these psychopaths cook up now? He wasn't sure that he wanted to know. With that, the door opened, and Eagle turned. He swore when he saw the door open. Noticing the man's attention was distracted for just a second, Eagle moved, grabbing the man's outstretched hand and using that to flip the man over. "Cub, run!" he yelled as he noticed a second man move towards the kid.

Alex darted under the man and skidded on the floor, which moved violently under the road. A man reached up and grabbed his hand. "You guys are idiots," the man said as he roughly twisted Alex's hand. Alex groaned, blinking. He felt like he was half asleep and needed to wake up, now.

Eagle felt the knife underneath his neck and grimaced. If it had just been himself he would have fought the men to their deaths, but Cub was there, and he was pretty sure that the kid would blame himself if Eagle died. "Don't tell the kid to escape," the man said. "Micah, get over here!"

* * *

_This isn't good_, Alex thought wearily as he watched the man, _this isn't good at all_. "...You called?" Micah said angrily. Alex noticed he was carrying a bucket of water. What the hell? This whole thing was all kinds of weird. Alex couldn't help but wonder if it was all a dream.

Maybe he could click his shoes three times like Dorothy and go home.

Then again, that would require him to have shoes though, right? Alex blinked twice, just now noticing that both of his shoes had been removed.

Noticing that the two men were distracted, Alex tugged his arm and yanked it free from the man's grasp. Eagle was about to maneuver himself out of the man's hold when he saw Alex grabbed again.

"This is not going to do any good," Micah responded. "Move them to Room Three. They're going to have to have a little lesson before we can sell them."

_Shit_, Eagle thought.

* * *

Micah grinned as he looked at Cub, the tub full of water. Eagle watched him wearily. However this ended it was not going to go down well. Black Shoes was still holding Eagle tightly and had a knife pressed against his neck. He wasn't moving anytime soon.

"We need some information," Micah said, "and you're going to give it to us."

Eagle curled his hands. "Go to hell."

"Oh, you and the kid are about to be."

_Damn it, why'd he have to get kidnapped with the kid? _Eagle thought. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he looked at the kid. Cub slowly shook his head, and Eagle took that as a signal not to reveal any information, no matter what happened to the kid.

Eagle mildly wondered how pissed the kid's parents were going to be at him before he remembered that Cub had been sent to Breacon Beacons because his uncle died. He'd have to question him more on that later, when he was alone.

Suddenly and without warning, a rag was shoved over Cub's mouth and he was shoved under the water. "What's your name?" Micah demanded, looking away from Cub.

"Fuck you," Eagle snarled. He didn't want to reveal his code name or his real name. Revealing his code name would reveal that he was Special Forces and revealing his real name was strictly against SAS policy.

Cub was brought out of the water and he gasped for breath as the rag was removed from his face. "That was a lame way to take a bath. You know, if you thought I hadn't used proper hygiene, you could have just told me."

Micah turned towards Cub now. "What's your name?"

"Go to hell. What can I say? My family had an odd choice in names." With that, Cub was roughly shoved back under the water before he could do anything about it.

It seemed they were on the same page as far as the name thing went.

"Leave him alone," Eagle said, hoping that they'd turn their attention towards him and not the kid. Cub had only sat in on a brief segment of RTI. That was with trained operatives that were on _their_ side. Eagle didn't know how he'd react in this kind of situation.

He really needed to find out more about the kid, he thought as he bit his inner lip.

"Sorry, can't do that." Micah brought the kid out of the water again. The kid's shoulders were soaking wet. Cub coughed a little harder, this time. "What is your name?" he asked the kid.

"I already told you, it's Go To Hell," Alex said even as he tried to breathe. "My parents weren't exactly sentimental and loving –" with that he was shoved back under the water.

This time they held him down for forty-six seconds. Eagle knew because he counted every single second. How much longer could the kid hold out without damage to his lungs? The last thing they needed was for him to get an infection.

Suddenly, he had another idea. It wasn't his most brilliant one. But it might work. "You need to leave the kid alone," he said. "Take me instead. I can handle it better. I'm SAS."

The room paused with an immediate silence. It was broken by Alex's cough, which sounded horrible to Eagle and he wasn't even a doctor.

Micah shrugged and shoved Alex back under the water. "SAS huh? You got a handler or some shit? What were you doing where I saw you?

"Does that really matter?"

"It matters to me." He let Alex up after another 50 seconds. This time Cub looked slightly pale and Eagle breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the kid start breathing.

"My code name is Eagle." Eagle had an ulterior motive for doing this – he wasn't breaking under pressure. The hardest part of their training, he thought ruefully, had been watching their teammates get tortured and not saying a damn thing. "You can call my buddy Wolf and he'll tell you that I'm SAS. They'll probably pay you a pretty penny to get me back."

He wasn't sure if the latter statement was true, but knew that they had some damn good tracing equipment on their phone and that Wolf could work on tracking him down.

The man paused. "We can talk," he said. He glared at Cub. "Take the kid to the other room and give him a slave t-shirt and pants. Mark him with a brand, and then get me the adult brand for this guy in case the phone call doesn't go like I plan it too."

Eagle groaned. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Challenge:

How did Eagle get himself kidnapped? Will his plan work?

What's going to happen next?


	3. Targeted Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes

Chapter Three: Targeted Brown Hair & Blue Eyes

A/N: This book is set before Scorpia Rising. In this book Alex never went on this mission. Jack is still alive and has legally adopted him.

A/N #2: You all should check out the story "A Complicated Game of Cat and Mouse" by writers4all. It's co-written with me and Torn Apart Paper Dinosaur. It's full of Alex whump.

For disclaimers see chapter one.

Thanks for your reviews and guesses.

* * *

Eagle glared at the man, determined to show that he wasn't going to give away any fear. This was the vital part in the kidnapping. The part where people broke down in tears, crying in fear, and the kidnappers won. Or it was the part where it was time to show that you weren't backing down. These guys had no idea, Eagle hoped, that he was only being submissive for two reasons. One: Cub was there. Two: He knew that being submissive was much better for escaping.

But being submissive did not mean that he was going to roll over and listen to everything these guys said. If it had just been him, he would have dived towards the door by now, damn the consequences to hell. But it wasn't just him. He had Cub to think about, as well as other citizens to think about – if they were there, and if they were on the good side, he thought ruefully.

"You belong to us now," the man responded. He reached up and poked the handcuffs that were holding Eagle's hands above his head. Eagle bit his lip, trying not to roll his eyes at the cliché. Really, these people needed to come up with new lines. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth to refrain from swearing at the man.

They'd found out the reason for the waterboarding. The real reason, not just the B.S. reason that they'd wanted their names. (Eagle didn't really think they'd cared about names). They were punishing Cub because Eagle had attempted to escape earlier, before he'd realized Cub was there, too.

"Let go of me!" Cub said as one of the men shoved him violently towards the floor. Cub caught himself, hands first. Eagle attempted to alleviate some of the weight on the heels of his feet by shifting it to another part of his feet.

"We need to brand them. Show them that they are owned now and cannot go back to their normal life," the first man said. He was speaking Spanish, but Eagle knew what he was saying. He could speak Spanish, English, and Russian fluently, and knew some Chinese and French (mostly "where is the bathroom?"). He looked blankly at the man. He wanted his captors to know as little as possible.

The man reached for a fire stick and Eagle frowned. This was not good. He had to get their attention away from Cub. "What's going on?" he asked. Yes, he was attempting to play the part of 'clueless.' These men didn't really know what the SAS was. They thought it was some "low level branch of the military." Eagle had to snort at that; a simple Google could have revealed much more.

Good thing these idiots didn't know how to use computers.

"What is going on," the man said, his voice heavy with an accent, "is that we own you now. You are our property, until we sell you later."

"You're selling us?" Eagle asked, surprised. He conveyed more surprise than he really felt. Or at least he hoped so. He didn't want to reveal that he suspected that to be their plan. "Why? To who? You shouldn't sell Cub. He's what, fourteen, fifteen? He needs to go to school."

"I'm seventeen," Cub said, glaring at Eagle.

Eagle gave him his best 'shut up, I'm trying to save your sorry ass' look. "He still needs to be in school. Why don't you let him go and just sell me?"

The man snorted. "Because we target people with blonde hair and brown eyes, or blonde hair and blue eyes, of his age. Do you not know how many people want that in their child, but are unable to get it? He's going to be somebody's kid. We know this cult that always wants these children, always."

"And what about me?" Eagle asked, not scared of the man who wanted so badly to be brave. He snorted. This guy could intimidate a fly. Maybe. If he was lucky.

"What about you? We do not know yet. But there are always buyers for men who can work in hard, demanding physical conditions."

Well, there went his 'break' from training, Eagle thought.

"Since you volunteered, we shall brand you first."

The man went for his firepoker, and at that minute, was distracted. Eagle kicked out with both legs and lashed out, determined not to let this psychopath brand him. He didn't want a scar from this. The next guy – someone who Eagle hadn't been paying much attention too – pulled a lever, and Eagle went from standing on the floor to crashing on the ground. His handcuffs were still attached, but his feet weren't tied, so he lashed out with them again. One of the other workers dived and captured his feet in a hold.

He looked up to see Cub there with a knife against his neck. "I suggest you listen to us or this kid is gonna be wearing a lot of blood."

Eagle gritted his teeth. Damn idiots. "Fine," he hissed, showing that he clearly didn't like the alternative.

* * *

_Flashback_

"_What?" Alex asked sleepily, blinking awake. He sighed as he looked for Jack, wondering where she was before remembering that she was out visiting family that night. Jack had determined that at seventeen Alex was able to be left alone._

"_I said don't move," the man said. There was a knife rested firmly against Alex's neck, and Alex flinched._

_Don't move, he thought to himself, don't move, don't move, don't move, don't move... "Move and we kill you," the man said._

_As if Alex hadn't gotten that._

"_Where is your guardian?" _

"_Gone. They went to visit a friend." _

"_Tsk, tsk. They left you here alone. What shame." The man slowly moved Alex a few inches. "Where is your passport?"_

"_My what?"_

"_Your passport. Surely every bloody English schoolboy has one of those?" _

"_It's in my top dresser drawer," Alex said, wondering why on earth they wanted it. A second man appeared and opened up the drawer, pulling it out, along with Alex's student identification._

"_Very nice. Let's grab these and we shall be on our way."_

_Alex really, really didn't like the sound of this, but with the knife pressed against his neck, he had no chance to comply._

End flashback

"You're not touching me," Alex said wearily.

"Shut up," the man responded as he grabbed Alex's arm. "If you resist we'll just slice this man's neck over here. I don't know if you know each other or not, but I bet you don't want his death on your conscious, huh?" he sneered.

Alex's eyes wandered to Eagle. He frowned, remembering the distraction technique Eagle had used when he had revealed he was SAS. But did he dare reveal he was formerly MI6? He decided against it. MI6 wouldn't bail him out. They wouldn't care. He bit his lip and looked down at the ground, giving the appearance of being submissive.

The man held down Alex's arm firmly. Alex winced as the ever-hot poker pressed against his skin, causing him to hiss in pain. "Fuck off, you son of a bitch!" he snarled, glaring at the man who had burned him. "You don't own me and you never will, and no brand is going to change that!"

"Don't hurt him!" Eagle said as the man moved towards Cub. "Leave him alone!"

"I'm fine, Eagle," Alex retorted, "Don't worry about me," he added as his arm was roughly twisted behind his back.

"You both are sentenced in solitary until you're sold," the man said. "Clearly we can't trust either of you right now. Maybe solitary will teach you a lesson."

_Maybe we'd rather be alone in solitary than dealing with you idiots, _Alex thought. He noticed Eagle tense as the man was burned with the poker stick.

He had to snort. Their captors might brand him, but Alex was fairly certain they'd never own him.

* * *

"How long has he been missing?" the cop asked as he sat at Wolf's kitchen table. Wolf resisted the urge to strangle him.

"…I'm not entirely sure," Wolf responded. "I didn't realize he was missing until we got the phone call."

"How long ago was the phone call?"

"Three hours. You can see yourself on the sheet." Wolf had to resist the urge to strangle him again. When was the sergeant going to get here? They could be doing something useful. Like finding Eagle.

"We have a neighbor who says she saw you and David get into a fight yesterday."

Wolf groaned. Openly. Loudly. "We were teasing each other about who took out the trash. If that's fighting…"

_Sergeant, you better get here soon before I strangle this man_, Wolf thought as he realized exactly what the man was insinuating.

Why the hell did the man think Wolf had kidnapped Eagle?

* * *

Challenges:

Does the man actually think that Wolf kidnapped Eagle? If so what will happen?

When will Eagle and Cub actually be sold? Will Cub reveal that he is a former MI6 agent at any point?

Thanks for your reviews. Now, please hit that review button. I just barely missed getting eaten last time because it wasn't happy with the review amount, and I'd enjoy not getting eaten again, so please help! Also, don't forget to check out the Writers4All story (after you review, of course!)


	4. And They're Going, Going, Sold

Cub roughly bit his bottom lip as he looked at Eagle. He knew that Eagle was trying to play a brainless dumbass so that the people who kidnapped them thought he was weaker than he really was. Eagle was ignoring everyone as if he was attempting to block everyone out. They'd put the handcuffs on him and he was just there, sitting on the floor. If Alex didn't know better, he would say that Eagle had no idea that he knew they were being sold in less than five minutes.

"It's your turn, get up," the man roughly said. He dragged Eagle by his arm and looked at Cub. "What the fuck are you waiting for? Get over here with him."

"Fuck you," Alex hissed under his breath. He followed Eagle's lead and allowed the man to slip handcuffs over his wrists. In as crowded as this area was, he knew better than to attempt to escape. They both did. Better to appear submissive and hope they were bought by someone who didn't have a clue in the world what they were doing.

"And now up for auction..."

"Eagle!" Alex hissed, knowing it was their turn, "Will we be separated?"

The SAS man shook his head. "No, we're being sold together..." he surveyed the two men who were watching the crowds intently. "Don't worry about me Alex, I'm stronger than I look."

"I should hope so. Otherwise the ninety-year-old grandma who lives next to me could get into the place were you work."

Eagle's lips curled up into amusement, a motion that faded when he was roughly dragged from the seat he was sitting on.

Suddenly Alex felt two fingers on his neck and remembered nothing as everything faded to black.

## break ##

When Alex awoke again, he didn't remember where he was automatically. He knew that a long time had to have passed, or that a long time _felt_ like it had to have passed, anyway. He blinked twice and maneuvered one of his hands – shit. His hands were chained to something. He tried to blink twice only to find out that he was blindfolded. Lovely. A brief attempt to scream revealed his mouth was gagged.

None of this mattered to Alex, though, because within seconds he was unconscious yet again. It felt like several hours had passed by the time he'd woken up the second time. This time, he was untied, and he was able to move around. He noted with concern that Eagle wasn't there. Had they sold them separately?

Another quick glance of the room revealed that the room was set up for a teenage boy. The walls were painted blue. Alex opened the dresser drawers to reveal that there were clothes there. He was disturbed to find out that the shirt was _his size_, too. A quick riffle through the drawers revealed everything was his size.

He was thoroughly freaked out. No, that wasn't really true – freaked out didn't really begin to describe it. He was...

The teenage boy was broken away from his thoughts when he heard the door opening. "This is the teenager whom I was talking about," the man said.

"Welcome home!" the woman said. Alex shied away from her, not trusting her demeanor for a minute. "Oh please, don't do this to me!"

"...Martha, why don't you go and talk to our new slave while I lay down the ground rules for Joseph?"

"Okay," Martha pouted as she left the room. Alex noticed her older-style dress and her weird glances at him. He shuddered; this sucked.

Now where the hell was Eagle?

## break ##

K-Unit ex-member Ben Daniels was in his car on his way to call his boss when he got the call. "What's up?" he asked, recognizing the voice instantly.

"Get back to base. We have a mission for you."

Lovely. So much for time off. At least the mission hadn't been extreme. "So your promise of time off was a lie then I suppose."

There was dead silence on the other end of the receiver. Ben Daniels smirked. "…What's so important it can't wait for me to take a nap?"

"Just show up at the Royal and General Bank. You'll understand."

The phone clicked dead and Ben growled. Damn, these people pissed him off.

## break ##

Wolf growled again at the man who was questioning him. "I fucking told you all-the-fuck ready. No, I did _NOT_ have anything to do with his disappearance! We are NOT dating! I am NOT abusing him!" he slammed his fists on the table. "Throw another theory at me, why don't you? You're wasting time we could be using to FIND him!"

"Why do you call him by the name Eagle?"

_You can't break his neck, Wolf. That wouldn't make you look very good. Remember how the SAS frowns on civilian murders when they aren't the bad guys_. Wolf gritted his teeth and forced himself to calm down. "Did you ever stop to think that it was a nickname?"

"What's his real name?"

"I gave it to you sixteen times already."

"I know you did. I just want to know why you call him 'Eagle.'"

_Don't strangle him, Wolf. The SAS will not like that and the sergeant will not be happy if he has to pay bail_. "He's an SAS member. It's his codename."

"I'm sure he is," the police officer said as he relaxed in his seat. "So can you tell me why he's missing?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"See, here's my theory. I think the two of you got in that fight that your neighbor mentioned. Maybe you've been fighting him a few times before or something, I don't know; maybe this was a first time and it spooked him. Or maybe, just maybe, he ran, and you want him back, so that's why you're looking for him?"

"….Are you fucking insane?"

"No. I'm fucking serious. Good, there you are, John," the man responded. "Read the arrest warrant."

"We charge you, James Sonja, in the kidnapping of Jordan Delavan."

Shit, Wolf thought, this was all going to hell. He needed the sergeant there yesterday.

## break ##


	5. I Do Not Answer to Joseph

Firstly, thank you all for your amazing reviews. Now, thank Rainstripe, who got you this chapter through HER awesome reviewing.

* * *

Eagle rolled his eyes as he was thrown in the room. "My grandmother could hurt me worse than that," he responded, half seriously and half sarcastically. "What am I doing here?"

The man looked at him, pausing. "I own you. Don't you know that? Didn't they tell you anything? Frank, fill in this… idiot." With that, he slammed the door.

It took Eagle a second to digest that there was a _teenage boy_ sitting right next to him. Holy shit. There was a kid there. "I'm Eagle." He still wasn't going to be called by whatever the hell they'd told him his name was.

"Eagle?" Frank asked, amused. "Okay. You remind me of Joe, but… whatever. Anyway…" he ran his hand through his hair. Eagle couldn't help but notice the teen looked exhausted. He frowned as he finally placed the boy's accent.

"You're American?" he asked.

Frank nodded. "Got it in one. Now, I want to sleep, so tell me what you know before I fall asleep on you."

Sighing, the SAS man frowned. He hadn't told these people he was a solider so he wanted to act as though he were less intelligent than he really was, which would make these people underestimate him. "…Okay, let me start at the beginning, when they hit me with a tranquilizer dart…"

* * *

"My name is _NOT_ Joseph!" Alex yelled as the man dragged him into the house. "Let me go! Let me go, you aren't my father!"

"Nobody around here cares, boy," the man responded. "Family's relative anyway, right?"

Alex resisted the urge to deck him at the bad pun. "Where is Eagle?"

"I don't know where the nearest eagle is."

"Where is the man who was with me?" Alex demanded. The man still hadn't let go of his arm.

"Oh, you will see him sometime. Probably. I cannot promise it though. In the meantime, this is your room. You will share it with Alan and Alex."

"...I'm Alex!" Alex said.

"No, he is," the man said, gesturing towards another boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. "This is Alan-" he said, gesturing at the man first boy.

"Good for you, you figured out that I'm Alan," the teenage boy said sarcastically. The other teenager shot him a warning look.

"And this is Alex."

"I'm Joseph, remember?" the teenager corrected, only to be ignored.

This was going to be a nightmare if for no other reason than that they'd switched their names, Alex thought with a groan as he sat down on one of the beds.

The door slammed shut.

"Let me guess," the boy said, "they just bought you."

"How did you know-"

"Your brand is still really fresh. You can tell how long a slave has been there by the condition of their second brand."

Alex's head snapped up. "Second brand?" That did not sound good.

"Yeah. I'm Joe, by the way. The real Joe," he added. "They did say they were going to try and get an Alex..." He let his voice trail off thoughtfully as he pulled up his arm. "See mine? It's got a brand right there. I guess by the condition you can tell I've been here three months."

"Three months is a helluva long time," Alex said, worried. The boy had been there three months? Why? "You're American right?"

"...I should hope so. We're in America."

"But I'm British."

"Give the boy a trophy!" The other boy said. He snorted as he sat on the bed. "According to them we're in some American state. I'm guessing the slavers kidnapped you from Britain. I'm Alan - they didn't change my name."

"They must have liked it," Joe said. Alex stretched a bit. "Did someone get kidnapped with you?" he asked Alex.

"...Yeah. Well, no. Well... I mean..." Alex ran his hand through his hair. "Okay, I woke up in the RV and there was someone else there who I knew, but he wasn't necessarily kidnapped with me."

"Probably was kidnapped somewhere close. They tend to target people who are traveling in pairs. They make the blond haired blue eyed boy their kid and they make the other person their slave. They separate the two so that they won't risk running away without the other person. That's what happened to me and Frank."

Alex swallowed hard. "What do they like so much about blonde haired, blue eyed kids?"

"Honestly," Alan said, speaking up, "I have no idea, but they do. I guess us blondes give them power in the cult. This family stands to be the most powerful family soon. They've gotten three blonde kids that we know about... wait, I'm assuming - they did say you were their kid right?"

"...Yeah..."

"The person in charge has five."

"What do they make you guys do?" Alex asked, wondering why they were so selective on genotype.

"...We'll save that for another time," Joe said finally as the door opened, giving them the distraction that they needed.

"Marko, hold Joseph down please. Steven, make sure that the boys don't try anything stupid." Alex guessed the guy who was named Marko came over towards him. He backed away. Joe called him out, saying, "Over here, you idiot!"

"No, the _real_ Joseph," the man snapped. "This one right here. You are Alex. Get it straight."

"No, I'm Joseph. He's Alex. Get a better memory," Joe said as he felt meaty hands being wrapped around his biceps.

"Welcome to the family, little Joseph," the man said as he moved towards Alex. Alex lashed out with his leg, nearly kicking Marco in the face. Marco must have been some wrestler in his past life because he grabbed Alex's arm and forced the teenage boy to the ground. "Now," he said.

Alex screamed loudly as the wire-hot brand marked his skin. "I'm not your son. No brand is going to change that!" he yelled loudly. The man pressed the brand into his skin once more, deeper this time, ignoring Alex's scream for mercy.

"Do we need to put him in quarantine?"

"Hmmm... perhaps..." the man eyed Alex. He grabbed the teenage boy's chin. "Are you going to be a good little boy?"

"Fuck you," Alex said as he spat in the man's eyes.

The man only chuckled, brushing at his eyes while maintaining a firm grip on Alex. "You do remember that you are our property now. Property does not backtalk, it does as it is told."

"Go to fucking hell."

"Oh, I'm sure I will. In the meantime, though, I am going to have some fun. Are you going to behave?"

"Depends on your definition."

Marko shook his head. "He's too talkative, Johnson." There was rapid discussion in Spanish. From what Alex could translate they were worried about him giving hope to the other boys.

With a final angry swear word from Johnson, Alex felt his arm being grabbed as he was dragged out the door. Alan shot him a worried look. Alex couldn't help but wonder what quarantine was. He knew the textbook definition, sure; just not their twisted definition.

Two minutes later and he was escorted to a room. He attempted to move his foot, in effort to knock down the man, but was stopped as the man knocked him down to the floor. He caught himself just in time. "Let me go!" Alex said, struggling again. The man ignored him and only gripped him more tightly. Alex suddenly felt one of his hands being handcuffed. He struggled with the other one only to find out that it was moved faster than he could imagine. It, too, was cuffed quickly.

"Boy, you better learn to listen. We don't tolerate shit here, you understand? You are my son now, but if you want to be treated like my son, you better listen."

At that Alex kicked out with his leg. The man just chuckled and moved over, taking his other leg and twisting it behind Alex's back. Suddenly Alex was bending on his knees and his feet were firmly shackled against the floor.

"Maybe this will teach you a lesson. Yell all you want, boy. Nobody will hear you." With that, the man left the room and the door slammed closed.

_You think this will break me? _Alex thought. _You just try and break me_.

Still, with that being said, it didn't look like the next twenty-four hours were going to be any fun. It was then when the man pulled the picture out of his pocket. "Does this look familiar too you, little Joseph?"

Oh shit. It was Jack. "Yes..." Alex said, his stomach curling as he looked at it. "...What..."

"We killed her. Her only responsibility was to look after you. Now she no longer has that. She is dead. Digest that for the next twenty four hours."

Alex allowed his chains to go slack and a tear to run down his face. _Jack, I'm so sorry... _

* * *

Wolf groaned as he woke up, his head spinning. He felt like he was tripping on something but he didn't know what. Ugh, he felt like legitimate shit (was there any other kind?) The man must have drugged him, he guessed.

Well that was his sign that these guys were jerks. And by jerks he met unauthorized police. It looked like it was time to kick this shit into high gear and get himself out of here.

The door to his cell opened. "Greetings. You are in America. Your prison sentence is five years. At the end of your five year term we will evaluate you, if we determine that you are no longer a threat to society you can go."

"...Fuck you."

"Now, now, language like that..."

Wolf brought one of his hands up, ready to deck the man, when he felt the taser enter his body. Shit. Escape time, pronto.

* * *

Benjamin Daniels stepped into the office. "I was talking seriously about that paid time off, Blunt."

"I know you were. Sit down. Don't you want to say hello to your old friend?"

"Snake?" Ben asked, doing a double take. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Wondering that myself. I've been sitting here waiting for the past half-hour when Eagle is _MISSING_ and I could be out finding him."

"Dolphin is looking for him," Alan Blunt responded with a perfectly straight face.

Snake growled.

Alan sighed. "You should have realized Dolphin was an MI6 person from the front. We replaced Fox because we wanted updates on SAS's intelligence. You remember Alex Rider?"

"No?" Snake asked.

"You knew him as Cub," Ben responded, his hands clenched. "Dear God, Blunt, did you put him in another mission? Because if you did..." he let his voice trail off.

Blunt only chuckled. "Now now, no need to be so impolite. No. He managed to get himself abducted. His housekeeper is in a coma in the hospital. They don't know if she'll wake up. We believe he was abducted by the same cult that abducted Eagle. Now, do you know where Wolf is, Snake?"

"...I'm not his keeper," Snake responded wearily.

"Tsk, tsk. Truthfully, we aren't a hundred percent sure either. But we believe the group that kidnapped Eagle took Wolf and put him in a prison that they have for people who look into the disappearances of those who were abducted by the cult... We also believe the group either tried to kill or abduct Alex's housekeeper."

"What do you want from us?" Ben asked coldly. "Other than to spy on K-Unit?"

"Oh, no. Nothing against K-Unit personally. We just needed someone in the SAS, Dolphin had wanted to go into the SAS willingly. You shouldn't be too mad at him. He was more focused on investigating others."

"And that's just fucking fantastic," Snake responded. "What do you want us for?"

"We need you to go undercover in the cult as partners to find Alex and Eagle. We believe that people in the cult will lead you to Wolf."

Snake and Ben looked at each other. "...And just how do you mean... partners?" Snake asked wearily.

"This time it's a little unorthodox," Blunt said. "Each member has to have a slave before they're introduced to the cult, and yes, you'll be living together. Will you two decide who's the slave, or should I pick for you?"

It was all Ben could do not to give Blunt the finger. This day just kept getting better.

* * *

Your challenge is to guess who the slave will be: Ben or Snake. Have fun picking! Thanks for your reviews. Disclaimer, see ch1.


	6. Symbiotic

A/N: Here is the next chapter. I took each of your votes into consideration when deciding who would be a slave - please see my rationale at the BOTTOM. Have a great day and review!

* * *

"...I somehow get the impression that you aren't really offering us a choice," Snake said as he sat down on the chair.

Alan Blunt raised his eyebrow. "Whatever makes you say that? Although you are technically correct. I had already decided when you were up here. Ben, I'll have to promise you more time off after this gig. Perhaps Snake will let you take it easy."

"What do you mean, 'perhaps Snake will let me take it easy?'" Ben asked. Snake grimaced at the glare that could clearly be heard in his tone.

"I mean perhaps he'll be an obedient slave for a few days and you won't have to punish him," Blunt remarked.

Snake's jaw dropped open. "I'm not a slave. Slavery's illegal."

"I gathered that. Despite what you boys think, I do know law." Blunt smirked a bit at this as if he was laughing at his own cruel joke.

"Clearly you don't," Ben snarled. "Otherwise you would fucking understand what fucking paid time off means."

"...Anyway, as I was saying, here are your files." Blunt handed the two files. "They have everything you need. Report to location B in 24 hours. Start assuming your roles now. Dismissed."

"How are we supposed to assume our roles when we don't even know anything about them?" Ben snapped as he glared at Blunt. "If you think I'm treating Snake like a slave you've got another think coming."

"...You will if you want your job. Dismissed. Now get out of my office before I throw you out for trespassing." With that, Blunt turned back to the computer, as if he just hadn't altered the course that the K-Unit's lives were going to take forever.

Ben slammed the door. At Snake's look, he just said, "Don't say anything until we get to the car." Snake had to bite his lip to avoid cursing as they slid into Ben's black automobile.

"I'm going to fucking kill him," Ben said, tossing the file on the backseat as he quickly did a sweep of his car for bugs by using a tool Smithers had given him. He quickly slid in the front.

"...Can't you just say no?"

"Snake, if I don't say yes, I won't have a job. I mean, more than that, I won't be able to get a job... They plaster it everywhere. But I mean, if you want to run away, I won't stop you..." he let his voice trail off.

"You look exhausted," Snake commented.

Ben snorted. "Of course I am. What's-his-jerkface said I'd get time off... never did – oh come on Snake, I'm fine, stop looking at me like that. What's your file say?" he asked, successfully changing the conversation.

Snake opened it and began to read.

* * *

The next morning, when Eagle woke up, he felt much better. To his pleasant surprise there was oatmeal waiting for him on the table.

"Be careful," Frank said. Eagle glanced at him, remembering him as the slave from last night. "It's probably drugged. But, they'll just drug you anyway, and then not let you eat, so..."

"Awesome," Eagle said as he took a bite. "So what's your last name?"

Frank raised an eyebrow. "...Why?"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Eagle responded. He had a hunch who the teen was and wanted it confirmed.

"Hardy... I'm Frank Hardy." The teen rocked on his heels. "My brother's here somewhere. They hardly ever let us see each other. Oh, and that guy's Scott. Hey, Scott."

"Hey," the man named Scott said as he came in and collapsed on the bed. "I fucking hate working nightshift."

Frank looked on sympathetically. "Where's your billionaire father?"

Scott snapped up. "You leave my father out of this."

"Hey, whoa!" Frank replied. "I want out of here just as much as you, if not more!"

"Are you implying I don't want out of here?"

"Ladies!" Eagle snapped, causing the two to look at him. "Let's try not to harm each other shall we? Who are you, I'm Eagle?" he offered, extending his hand to Scott.

Scott looked at it but didn't bother to shake it as he lowered his head back on the bed. "Scott Tracy. Don't mention my father Frank – he's going to kill me for getting Alan kidnapped, okay? He'd probably rescue Alan and leave me here."

"I'm sure that's not true," Frank said, shooting a warning look that clearly warned Eagle not to say anything. "Now my father on the other hand..."

Eagle groaned. Mission one: Boost morale. Mission two: Start plotting to get the hell out of there. Mission three: Kill all of their captors.

* * *

Alex awoke at eight o'clock, his heart pounding so loudly he could've sworn that you could hear it from China. The nightmare had shocked him out of his sleep. He groaned as he looked at Joe, who was sitting peacefully on his bed. "Hey," he said . "They normally let us sleep this late?" he questioned as he glanced at the clock. Had the quarantine scene been just a nightmare? He glanced at the marks on his wrists and decided it wasn't.

"Yup," Joe responded with a nod. "Normally until about nine." He glanced at Alan. "I wonder if they'll let us do family visits today," he said softly, careful not to wake the younger teen. Alex couldn't help but notice that the teen was only about fourteen. He wondered how old his brother was.

"Why wouldn't they? I mean is it a day they usually do it?"

The teen nodded. "Yeah, I think so. It's just when there's a new person, sometimes that messes us up a bit."

Alex nodded, feeling sick to his stomach. He forced the bile down. "What do they normally have us do?"

"We're supposed to be their kids for life, so we're doing tutoring and all that shit," Joe responded less than cheerfully. "What happened to your arm?"

"Quarantine."

"Shit, sorry man," Joe said. He lifted up his shirt. "See that right there?" he asked, pointing to the scar. "It doesn't pay to muck with them."

"Put your shirt down, dude. You ain't got nothing worth advertising, trust me," the female said as she walked in the room and playfully tapped Joe on the shoulder.

"Hey, Kathryn," Joe said as he looked at her. "How's your dad doing?"

Kathryn backed away from him as if he'd said the Titanic was happening all over again. "Don't ask. He's in a bad mood this morning. I'm not talking to him."

"Are they still letting us visit family?"

Shrugging, the teenager responded, "If they won't I'll make them."

"How?" Joe asked. When he looked at the teenager again, he rolled his eyes. "Never mind, don't tell me. Are they tutoring us too?"

"No, silly. Today's Friday. We never do tutoring then." Kathryn sat on Joe's bed. "It's nice having my own room and not sharing with three guys."

"It's nice having a father who isn't a psychopath," Joe commented.

Kathryn frowned. "I guess you win. Touche. So who are you?" she asked, looking at Alex.

Alex felt distinctly uncomfortable. He didn't know why blonde hair was so prized in this cult and truthfully it worried him. "Alex. Also known as Joseph apparently."

The teenage girl shook her head. "They're so stupid when it comes to names, I swear to -" the door opened and she frowned, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it was a brunette. "Morning, Ariyan."

"Morning, Kat."

"Don't call me that," Kathryn bulked, "Or I'll cut your fingers off. This is the new guy, Alex slash Joseph."

Ariyan smiled playfully. "Wonderful. Fresh meat."

"_Ariyan_!"

"What?" Aryian asked, just as playfully. "That's what all of our captors want him for."

Alex swallowed. Damn. This day just kept getting better. He swallowed hard, thinking of Jack. _I'm so sorry..._

* * *

Wolf woke up from his sleep, exhausted. They'd drugged him with twice the normal dose of something, and he was exhausted. He was about to react to something else when he felt the needle shove into his skin again.

The last words he heard before he fell unconscious were, "He's got someone coming for him, he has to be sleeping before they get here."

* * *

Notes: I chose Snake to be the slave because he has blonde hair and blue eyes, at least in this story. Also, he's a medic; I figure he'd have trouble beating someone up and could patch himself up if needed, and maybe even someone else. Please review. Don't forget to check out my Writers4All account for stories I'm working on with my friends.

Challenges:

How will Snake and Ben infiltrate the cult?

Will Alex get to see Eagle?

Who are Frank and Joe Hardy? What about Scott and Alan Tracy?

What _do_ they want all the blonde-headed blue eyed people for?


	7. They Lie About Your Birthday

A/N: this chapter is 2,136 words (ish, give or take a few)... Hope you enjoy! Finished it yesterday and then forgot to update. o.0. Here goes!

* * *

"I can't believe this," Ben groaned as he looked at Dolphin, who was sitting across from him. They had just finished reading the file folders. "I have to actually _buy_ Snake from the black market. What the hell were they thinking?"

"I don't know, maybe they were smoking pot," Dolphin said. "I can't believe he said I was giving MI6 information. That's just complete and utter bullshit. Who says that?"

"Blunt," Snake said humorously. "He's a fucking psychopath, but we all knew that. So… why did they think you were sending intel?"

"…Because they had me report on someone from B-Unit twice," Dolphin responded with a groan. "Remember the guy who attacked me? I'm so confused as to why they think I work for them. Remind me to give him a piece of my mind later."

Ben raised his eyebrows but didn't respond. "But you were gathering information on others outside of the SAS."

"As a side job. I wasn't reporting on the SAS. That's probably why 'I work for them.' Anyway, let's just bypass all this shit, shall we? They've set me up on the cover as someone who sells slaves. I'm selling my first one at this marketplace to 'try it out' and see how good the bids are and all that shit. If this cult is active or controls the marketplace, I'm guessing Snake's bid will go for fairly high because he has blonde hair and blue eyes."

"Oh, joy," Snake remarked sarcastically, "That's lovely. Just what I wanted to hear. What is that, some sort of fetish or something?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "I don't know. I'd love to know their reasoning for that. So you're going to sell Snake, and I'm going to buy him."

"Yes. According to my profile he's a slave who I've had for two years. I don't want him anymore because I have a slave who is 'under 21' and Snake is '21.' It's a good thing you look young, Snake," the man remarked. "Your profile says you're just about to turn 22."

"Apparently they ignored the fact about how I'm 24. It's Eagle who's the youngest," Snake remarked quietly. He didn't really like his new role but had already decided that it was better than actually forcing someone to be a slave. He could at least pretend to be pissed off about being a slave, which he was. While he knew it wasn't Ben's fault, he'd probably yell at him a few times.

He wondered mildly what the extent of Dolphin's involvement with MI6 was but decided not to press the matter. He trusted Dolphin and would probably extend that trust until the man decided to throw him under a bus. Or until after he sold him. Whichever came first.

Ben bit his lip. "I wonder what happened to Wolf," he remarked.

Dolphin sobered. "From what I gathered in the files and from my file, it's my job to sell Snake and take the job I've been offered through a contact in the prison Wolf is in. Wonderful, right?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Then, once I find him and get him out of there, we'll come back and kick ass."

"Why do you think they took Wolf?"

"I think what makes this gang so successful is that they kidnap people from the United Kingdom and take them to America to sell. Oh, sure. They kidnap people in America too. But let's face it, if you kidnap someone from this country and take them to America, it's going to be much harder to track them down."

"They sound like a lovely bunch." Ben groaned. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."

* * *

Alex groaned as he looked at the books ahead of him. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope. They assess you by tests, and then they set you up with this level of coursework. You got lucky, though. You're the same age as me, so they just assumed you had the same intelligence as me."

"How old are you?" Alex questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Sixteen. Alan's fourteen." Alan wasn't there at the minute. It was his turn to visit his brother.

"I'm seventeen," Alex remarked.

Joe raised his eyes. "Don't tell them that. They don't like being wrong. Plus they don't generally buy slaves seventeen and older so…"

"I'll keep my mouth shut," Alex said dryly, wondering what it was with these psychopaths and age. "Why are they so picky about the blonde haired blue eyed boys thing? It's really creepy."

"Well, and girls. I think they are trying to 'separate' the population. You will notice in the cult that the most powerful people themselves have blonde hair and blue eyes."

"They've apparently never heard of hair dye or contacts," Alex quipped.

Joe rolled his eyes. "No, they want _natural _skin color. Natural eye color. They're big natural freaks if you ask me," he remarked. "I think what they want to do is weed out the population that isn't blonde haired or blue eyed. They want to eliminate the people who aren't as strong and tough. You'll notice that there are some brunettes as slave owners, but they usually aren't invited into the cult unless they're very physically fit or have some other attribute. Basically, what they're trying to do is make the earth the way _they_ want it. I hear they want to eliminate, as they put it, 'the black race' entirely."

"They're charmers, aren't they?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "But… do they have you and Alan _do_ anything?"

"Lots of homework… define 'do' anything." A look of realization hit Joe as he realized exactly what Alex was talking about. "Oh, no. God no. Thank God no. No, they aren't sexual predators, or at least they don't seem to be. Personally, if you ask me, they seem to be warped and living in the 19th century. Or even earlier. But I think they're trying to eventually take over the world."

"From their small tent city?" Alex asked.

Joe chuckled. "Well, they do have homes, not tents, but yes, it is a very small town. It's only about a hundred people. It's because everyone who moves in has to have a slave." He glanced at the door as another teenage boy slid in. "Morning Jake."

"Morning," Jake said as he sat down the bowels of food in front of them. "Joe, it is your turn to visit Frank next. He says to tell you that he is doing fine, and please do not ask him about his black eye."

Joe groaned. "How'd he get the black eye?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, but I wouldn't press it. Master is in a bad mood this morning." With that, the door closed.

Alex looked at the oatmeal and sighed. At least there was toast with it, right? "Do they drug us in our food?" he asked.

"I don't think so," Joe said. "At least, I haven't noticed any reactions too it, so that's good, right?" he asked, giving a cheeky smile. He groaned as he looked at his mathbook. "I hate math…"

The door opened as Joe was just finishing his English homework. He wasn't kidding when he said he hated math, Alex noted; the teenager had saved that part of his homework for last.

"Alex, it is your turn to visit." Alex stood, and the man quickly shook his head. "The _other_ Alex. Get used to your name, boy."

"I am used to my name. You just happened to have the wrong one," Alex retorted with a roll of his eyes.

Joe sighed and rose from his seat, moving past the two boys to the man. The door closed.

"How did your visit go?" Alex asked Alan.

Alan bit his lip, obviously trying to decide what to say. "I honestly don't know," he responded finally. "I miss Scott, but the shit the slaves go through… oh, he was so tired today. I could tell, even though he said he wasn't."

"Other than that, did it go well?"

"Yeah. I just wish he wasn't hurting so much. He blames himself for me getting kidnapped, but I told him that if they were targeting me, there was really nothing he could have done."

"How long have you been here?"

"About four months. It sucks. It really does." Alan collapsed on the bed. "I just want my other family. I mean, I want Scott too. Don't get me wrong. But…" he let out a frustrated breath. "I hate them!" he said finally, slamming the door.

Alex sighed. Mission one: Increase team morale…

The door opened again, and suddenly, it was Alex's time to visit Eagle.

* * *

"Eagle!" Alex said finally. He was glad to see a familiar face. "How have you been?"

"Good. Trying to improve team morale. Uh…" Eagle let out a breath as he watched another man come back into the room. "Hey Scott, meet my 'brother.'" He had been told in no uncertain terms that he and Alex were brothers. One of the slaves, who had no other brother, had told him it was the best way to see Alex.

"You don't sound too convinced that you're related," Scott said as he raised his eyebrow.

"That's probably because we're half-brothers and he feels uncomfortable calling me his bother. You caught onto that pretty fast," Alex remarked, coming up with the idea on the spot. Eagle shot him a thankful look. It was brilliant.

"How have they been treating you?"

Alex pouted. "I have to do schoolwork. It sucks."

"Yeah, I could see how that would be a problem," Eagle said. "Hey, it gives you a good chance to get caught up, right?"

"More like be behind. They think I'm sixteen so they placed me in with Joe."

"…You didn't correct them?"

"The basic consensus that I got was that would be a bad idea if I wanted to live," Alex deadpanned.

Eagle chuckled humorously. "They sound like a charming bunch. So, Alex… what do you say we start plotting out your education plan?"

Alex raised his eyebrows. He couldn't exactly explain how but he knew Eagle was asking him if he wanted to escape. "If you're asking what I'm thinking, hell, yes," he remarked.

They had to shut this thing down and give these people hope again.

* * *

"As you can see, we're taking good care of him," the man said to the sergeant as he opened the door.

The sergeant fixed him with a look. "That's why he's unconscious. In the middle of the day. Right?"

"Who are you again?"

"I'm his supervisor. What was his crime?" The sergeant knew that something was wrong. He just didn't know what. He vowed he would get to the bottom of it regardless.

"Uh, we arrested him in suspicion of kidnapping his roommate."

The sergeant bit his lip, trying to decide what to say. "And you decided to transport him out of your technical jurisdiction _why_? I thought I overheard someone saying something about how he was being moved…"

The man gulped. "Well, they were planning on moving the slaves here to America…"

"Has a date been set for bail?" At the man's shake of his head the sergeant groaned. "Has he been offered the chance for bail?"

"No…"

"Who is in charge here?"

"Me…"

"…Did you even really legally arrest him?"

"Yes…."

"I'll sign whatever stupid ass bail papers you need, but I want him out of here now. I'm a sergeant in the military. I train the SAS. I outrank your ass ten times to one. Check my credentials or whatever you need, but I want him out of here within the next hour."

* * *

Challenges:

_How is the sergeant going to get Wolf out of there? __What will he do once he learns how MI6 is using Dolphin, Fox and Snake? When will Dolphin and Snake's mission start?  
_

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I had some free time and decided to update early!  
_


	8. Take No Prisoners of The Night

A/N: Enjoy! There will be more of K-Unit next chapter - I promise.

* * *

Snake tapped his fingers restlessly on his sleeve as the van pulled closer to the gate. Dolphin flashed his identification card and within seconds, they were through. Snake tugged restlessly at the handcuffs that were behind his back. At Dolphin's pointed look, he stilled. Sighing hard, he resisted the urge to flip Dolphin over.

He felt like this was a really, really bad idea.

Fox had been given permission to buy him using whatever funds were needed. Translation: at all costs, Fox was to buy him. Snake sighed as he attempted to block out the chaos and the noise aside of him. He heard Dolphin talking to someone else, joking about slaves and property. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about how he was going to be living that lifestyle very soon.

_He was going to fucking kill Blunt for suggesting that he should be a slave because he had medical skills_. He bit his lip as he was pulled towards the auction.

This was so not going to go well.

## break ##

"Come on, Alex," Alex said, feeling oddly like he was talking to himself. Last night he'd been beaten for calling Joe 'Joe' instead of Alex so he was trying to be more careful this morning. It wasn't that he didn't want to be rebellious - he did, oh he did, and he had plans on it too - it was just that he wanted to still be in shape for when he tried to escape. Besides, there was no point in getting beat up for something so stupid.

Alex winced as he rubbed his shoulder. Man it hurt. It hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt. "...Come _on_!" he complained, shaking the teenage boy awake. Joe snapped forward, his leg flailing out and kicking out Joe.

"Sorry," Joe said as he landed on the floor. "Six months here and I still can't get used to Frank not waking me up."

"...How does he normally wake you up?"

"Not by shaking me." Joe grinned to let Alex know he wasn't mad before making a gesture at Alan. "Do you want to wake him up or should I?"

"Maybe we should just let him sleep in." Joe paused. "On second thought scratch what I said, please. Alan! Get up!" With that, Joe jumped onto the bed and landed promptly on Alan's back. The teenage boy startled awake.

"Get off of me," he said, now fully alert. "There _are_ other ways to wake me up, you know."

"But this works the best," Joe pouted.

Alex shook his head, wondering how these guys worked like this. He knew they had to be suffering. After all, however many months of pain they'd gone through here was nothing to laugh at.

Alan shook his head. "Dude. You and him could be twins. It's creepy."

"We _all _could be twins," Joe pointed out.

"I think you mean triplets. And we're different ages."

Alan looked confused. "I thought you said you were sixteen?"

"...I'm six months older than Joe." Alex avoided saying he was actually nine months older than

"Obviously you weren't born by the same mothers. Wonder what would happen if someone questioned them about their papers they have for us?"

Joe snorted. "Come on _Alan_, they've got-" with that, the door opened, one of the men bolting in.

"Give it back!" he said. "Now!"

"But it's got my name on it! It's mine!" Alan protested. Joe looked at Alex, wondering what on earth they were talking about. Joe only shrugged.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"Give me it_!" _the man said, grabbing Alan by his shoulder. "I already told you before that you do not get possession of your birth certificate. _We _have possession of it. Get it now!"

"No," Alan said, crossing his arms. "It's a _lie_! I am _not_ related to you! This is-"

"Give the birth certificate to me _now_," the man said, "Or I'll punish your brother."

Alan went stone cold at that and went closer towards his pillow, finally pulling the birth certificate up. "Fake," he said, shredding it in half.

Joe and Alex looked at each other, speechless. Was the kid _trying_ to get somebody beaten up? Or was he just that upset about his identity.

The man growled. "You know, I was going to let you off with a warning, but since you destroyed our property..." he grabbed Alan by his shoulder before pointing to Joe and Alex. "You and you, I want a dissertation on how you're just property."

"I'm not going with you!" Alan tried, but failed to get out of the man's arm. Alex looked at Joe, wondering what was going to happen and how he could step in when someone else came in. Within seconds, Alan was pulled from the room and the door was slammed shut.

"...This is going to be a really good day, right?" Alex said. "So... I'm voting for about how we do a dissertation on how they don't own us and that we're humans?"

Joe sighed. "...Good luck with that. Honestly, I don't think they read anything we write, so yes, go ahead. If you feel like a death sentence."

Alex groaned. Operation Improve Morale was going seriously down the toilet. "Joe."

"What?"

"Come on. We can still get out of here. It's not like it's a life sentence."

"I've been here six months," Joe reminded him.

"I _know_, but -"

"...And my dad's a private detective."

Admittedly, Alex wasn't expecting that one.

"...and you're from the United Kingdom," Joe pointed out, as if that was the most logical thing in the world.

Alex gritted his teeth. "I _know_ but -"

"And Alan's father is some really famous rich millionaire -"

"I know, but don't you think we can still escape?" Alex said. "There's got to be _some_ plan that we can come up with!"

Joe shook his head. "You don't _get it_, do you? Every time we do something wrong they punish our other side, our other brother. Why do you think I haven't tried to escape? You have a brother, right? Eagle something?"

"Yeah..." Alex said absentmindedly.

"...How would you feel if _he_ got sentenced to a week of solitary because you _said_ something wrong? How would you feel if he got _starved_ for a week because you tried to escape? How would you feel if someone took to shooting your family because you said you wanted to get out of here?"

Alex was momentarily speechless.

"They obviously haven't messed with your family yet," Joe muttered as he snapped his pencil in half without realizing it, "otherwise you wouldn't even be trying to escape."

Remembering the news he'd heard about Jack's death, Alex lost it and moved forward for Joe, physically shoving him off the chair and onto the floor. "Don't you ever say that," he hissed. "Don't you ever say that."

Joe flipped him over. "...Why'd you knock me off my chair!"

"Because you're accusing me of shit!" Alex responded, finally stressed out enough about Joe's apathy attitude. He didn't blame the boy for being depressed, but he was just so sick of his whole situation.

"-Whoa!" Joe said as Alex once more knocked him over. "I mean, hey, you and Eagle haven't even been here a week..."

With that, Alex balled his hands into fists. "Do you realize that they _killed_ my guardian so that they could take me for money? They _killed_ her. I have _nobody_ now. All I have is my half-brother," he added hastily, keeping his cover just in time. "Don't you _dare_ say that I haven't suffered."

"And yet you're still willing to escape!" Joe responded as he pushed back against Alex. "Don't you know that when you attempt to escape, it's _my _brother who suffers? Alan does something wrong, my brother will suffer somehow!"

"...Joe-"

With that, the door opened to the scene of Alex pinning Joe on the floor. The man quickly hauled Alex off of Joe, swearing, "Is there something in the water today? Get off of him. Three days in solitary," he added as he pulled Alex away. Alex winced and attempted to fight back before a rag was shoved under his mouth and he quickly subcummed to darkness.

## break ##


	9. Sacrifices of Human Flesh for Hitler

A/N: Thanks to everyone for their kind words. I'm done with school in 15 days, and graduation is 19 days away. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze another update or two out before then. Here is the next chapter of Slavers. Also, someone mentioned that Joe Hardy was acting OCC from his original Hardy Boys self. While I agree he'd normally be joking and trying to improve morale himself, keep in mind he's been held hostage 6 months and seen his brother go through horrible things all because he had a "selfish desire" and tried to escape - so he's going to be a little depressed. Additionally, he's only 16 here, so keep that in mind as well; he is just a teenager.

* * *

Snake glared at Dolphin as the auction began. He had to fight hard to keep his emotions under control. He noticed that his bidding price went up a few thousand dollars when the man pointed out that he had both blonde hair _and_ blue eyes.

Just how shallow were these people?

He caught a glimpse of the look on Dolphin's face as the man crossed his arms. Clearly Dolphin had also noticed what Snake had noticed. These people were probably certifiable psychopaths, Snake thought. Lovely. Just lovely. This was not good.

"...Nineteen thousand!" the man who was doing the auction remarked. Snake hissed as the man slapped him. "See that boys? He may be over eighteen but he's got plenty of fight left in him. Nineteen thousand anyone?"

It was all Snake could do to keep from breaking through the damn chains and strangling the person who was auctioning him off. If it had just been him and the person, he probably could have stood a fighting chance, but in the events that transpired, he knew better than to try. Even if he _could_ overpower the person doing the auction, he still had the case to think about - as well as the fact that Dolphin was only about five feet away from him and the crowd below.

He wanted to remain alive this evening after all. Snake growled as it rose another thousand. He was going to shoot MI6. Or blow up the building. Or...

* * *

Eagle anxiously paced around back and forth, bored. He was tired of this life. They didn't have to do anything until nine o'clock in the morning and it was only eight thirty. He'd already eaten breakfast and was bored.

Very, very bored.

"Got enough exercise yet?" Scott asked as he came out of the bathroom.

Shrugging, Eagle sat down on his bed. "You've been here how long?"

"Four months. Why?"

"Have you ever tried to escape?"

Scott closed his eyes. "Yeah."

Somehow Eagle knew he wasn't going to like this conversation but it needed to be had. "...What happened?"

"They beat up Alan. That's what they do, Eagle. They beat up whoever it is that - well you know. If you would try and escape they'd beat up Alex. Hey, why won't you give them your name?"

"It's a long story, but I'll tell you later, after we're out of this mess. Is anyone else from the UK?" Eagle asked.

Nodding, Scott responded, "Yes. Quite a few, actually. Jake is, Sarah is, Rain is - she insists that's her name, although nobody quite believes her - and Drake is. I think Alan and I were grabbed more because we were convenient. And I have no doubt we were grabbed because he is young."

"So people with blonde hair - they want them to work their way up in the cult?"

Scott sighed. "Yes and no, I think. Right now this cult is only about two to three years old, I think. I'm not sure why they are so focused on genetics, but I think it's only partly the hair/eye color - I don't really know why blonde is so important to them. _Anyway_ - they want to have the strong dominate the weak, and eventually, they want the meek to disappear from the earth completely."

Eagle groaned. "So basically they're like minded psychopaths?"

"Yup. I also think they worship Hitler."

"You think they _what_?" Eagle asked. Well he was certainly no stranger to Hitler obsession he had to admit this was new. "They... what?"

"They worship Hitler. I was there once when... " Scott closed his eyes. "They made a sacrifice to Hitler. That... That.. was awful." Scott closed his eyes. He had remembered thinking the whole time that it could have been Alan. It could have been Alan. It could have been Alan...

"They _what_?" Eagle asked, his jaw dropping. "Like - like a cat or a kitten?"

"Try like a human."

Eagle felt like he was going to be sick. And he'd thought he'd seen it all... "What do they think that sacrificing a human will do?" he questioned.

"I honestly have no idea," Scott said, "but if you ask me - I don't even know." He looked as repulsed as Eagle. The door opened and Eagle turned towards it.

"Greetings, friends." The man smiled as he looked at Eagle. "How are you doing today?"

Scott and Eagle glanced at each other, both wondering what the hell was going on. "Fine," Scott said wearily, opting to be the first brave person to speak.

"Good. You have today off. Enjoy the peace and quiet." With that, the door closed. Scott turned towards Eagle, Eagle frowned.

"Something's wrong," Eagle said. "Why would they just give us the day off? They don't exactly believe in employee benefits."

"What company actually would just do that?" Scott said with a shrug. "Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Now granted, he did just say we have the day off, not the night, so-" the door opened and Scott glanced up, frowning as he remained silent. Eagle didn't speak either.

"Yes. We keep our other slaves in here," the man said. "Normally, cult members have both children and slaves, but you're an exception."

"I feel privileged to have moved up through the ranks so quickly," the familiar voice remarked.

Eagle had to keep himself from paling on the spot. Fox. Fox was a slave owner with the cult? What the hell was going on here?

* * *

Alex returned from solitary only slightly worse for wear. He hated solitary, he really did. That probably had something to do from the fact that the chains chaffed badly at his wrists than at the fact that he hated the alone time.

He was thrown in the room roughly. The door slammed behind him, leaving Alex alone - or so he thought - in the room. He turned to see Joe standing there.

"I'm sorry," Joe apologized, holding out his hand. Alex noticed his knuckles were bruised. "Truce?"

"Truce," Alex responded. "I'm sorry. It's just, my guardian..." he let his voice trail off. "Someday, when we're out of here, I'll tell you," he added, "but not now."

Joe smirked. "Guess I can live with that. And you're right about something."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Did you just say I was right about something?"

"Oh, shut up. You sound like Frank. Anyway, we still _can_ escape. I mean, if we really, really couldn't escape, why would they bother to punish us for our escape attempts?"

_I'm not going to dispute the lack of logic in the statement and say that these guys just like beating people up_, Alex told himself firmly. Instead, he said, "Seems legit... So, any ideas?"

"Oh, yes," Joe said enthusiastically. "I spent the whole time that you were gone thinking of answers to the question." He pulled out his sheet. "I even got ahead on my homework, too," he added sarcastically.

"Nice," Alex said. Maybe there was hope after all. He wanted to know where Alan was but didn't want to damage Joe's hope that he'd just regained, so he kept his mouth shut. "So, what's your first idea?"

"Well, my first idea was that I've been acting really submissive, so I have _some_ freedom to move around the grounds..." Joe let out a grin and Alex raised an eyebrow, wondering where this conversation was going.

Maybe they were finally going to get out of here.

## break ##

Wolf groaned as he attempted to sit down a little more comfortably in the sergeant's car. They were already thirty miles away from the prison. "Glad you bailed my ass out back there," he admitted. "What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself. I know someone who works in the prison - probably ain't the most brightest, legit guy around, but still - said that if any of my men came through there, claiming that they were SAS and had code names, he should call me."

"...Nice. I think. So he called you?"

"Yup. Said they were getting ready to transport a bunch of prisoners to America and that you were one of them. He also helped me talk to the other dude - gave me all the details that the man never would have in a million years," the sergeant responded.

Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Very nice. Is he... uh, an informat?"

"I think that's what the USA calls it. Yup, and the Co-19* are going to be investigating them now, I think they had a raid planned for this afternoon," the sergeant said cheerfully.

"Amazing how they did that _after_ you bailed me out."

The sergeant rolled his eyes. "Amazing has nothing to do with it. Now, you want to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Sighing deeply, Wolf groaned, knowing that he was going to have to do that at some point. "Well, Eagle went missing... _what day is it now_? Anyway, they thought I kidnapped Eagle and put me there. What day is it? How long has Eagle been missing?"

"It's Wednesday," the sergeant said grimly. "I was notified by Fox that Eagle was missing. He's been missing five days now. I guess MI6 has launched a full scale investigation."

"Fuck," Wolf moaned, taking his head and banging it against the dashboard of the car, "I fucking hate MI6..."

The sergeant grinned at him. "I've never been their biggest fan either. They tried to claim Dolphin was 'working for them' because he sent them some documentation that I asked him to fax over. You and I are going to do a little undercover mission of ourselves."

"Oh, joy," Wolf said sarcastically, wondering what on earth the sergeant had come up with now and how much trouble they were going to get in. He could hardly wait to see what was going to happen. "I'm in," he said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I'll do whatever it takes to rescue them."

"Me, too. Which is exactly why I'm on paid time off for the next six weeks," the sergeant responded. "We're going to have some fun. And the other cadets are going to be in hell. That's all I can say."

* * *

Challenges:

What happens in solitary? What happened to Alex, specifically?

How did Fox move up the ranks so quickly? What happened to Snake? How much did Snake get sold for?

What has happened to Joe Hardy / Frank in the time they've been held hostage there (6 months?)

What are the escape plans that Alex and Joe going to come up with?

Answer one, answer some; answer none, but review. The review button changed colors awhile back and it's feeling lonely.

Thanks! **You** keep me writing. **I count on you.**


	10. Progress Notes and Escape Codes

_A/N: Had a little bit of family drama, so here's the next chapter of Salvers! Yes, I am one of the people where family drama makes me write more. I hope you enjoy this comment. Bookdancer, no hard feelings, I get attached to my favorite characters too. I just wanted to point that out so that you would understand I'm not just trying to totally change his character. I enjoy reading your reviews. DarthZ, I tried to tone it down on the swearing, but I don't know how much the bad guys cooperated. _

_Enjoy! Disclaimers in CH1! _

_Do you know what it means to be free, you are human? Do you know what it means to be free, you are human? - Project 86 _

_## break ## _

Fox had to keep his face expression neutral when he saw Eagle. Oh, wow. His first thought was that he _was_ alive. Thank God for that. He swallowed before saying, "So this is where you keep your slaves?"

The man nodded. "This one is new," he said, gesturing to Eagle. "So new, in fact, we haven't named him yet. He goes by 'Eagle' for whatever stupid reason-"

"It's not stupid, you're stupid!" Eagle interrupted.

Fox inwardly groaned but kept his outward expression schooled. _Eagle, don't make __**me**_beat you**, **he silently pleaded.

"Anyway, we haven't named him yet. He's still learning. Oh, hey Jake do me a favor and take Scott to see Alan? They can have a few minutes."

Scott looked over at the man before looking over at Eagle. Eagle tried to motion to him that he should just go and not worry about Eagle. The man must have sensed the cue because he followed Jake out of the doorway.

The doorway closed, and he turned back to Eagle. "Anyway, we're still trying to break him in. I thought that this... instruction would be useful for you to use in training your slave."

"I'm sure it will be," Fox said, trying not to vomit on the man's expensive, 300 pound shoes. He was sure that the man wouldn't be pleased at that. Even if it was what Fox wanted to do. He would _not_ use these techniques on Snake.

The man moved closer to Eagle. "I said SIT DOWN!" he said, snarling in Eagle's face. "God, what are you - an idiot?"

"I don't know, I haven't taken the IQ test yet," Eagle remarked. He knew his IQ was well beyond genius level but wasn't about to tell him that.

The man gestured towards Fox. "I'd like to see where you go with this. Make him sit down."

Fox closed his eyes for three seconds, prayed a prayer of forgiveness to God, and then moved towards Eagle. "Sit down. He owns you. You want him to beat your ass?"

"I've never heard of that expression before...it's always been either 'kick your ass' or just 'beating' in general. I give you points on creativity."

Fox snarled. "Your previous owners must have been fucked up. Sit down." With that, he shoved Eagle towards the bed. The man allowed himself to fall to the ground and Fox knew that he was playing a part - being someone he really wasn't. Fox knew his comrade could have taken him ten times to one. Maybe it was better that Fox was there; that way he wouldn't let Eagle kill his kidnapper.

"Nicely done. You're right; we have to use force with this one." The man squatted down and leaned over Eagle.

"Your breath reeks, would you mind stepping away?" Eagle said, scrunching up his nose.

The man growled before kicking him roughly in the side. "You want another slave?" he asked Fox.

Fox bit his tongue. Truthfully, the answer was yes, he would feel much better knowing that he had Eagle - but he doubted the man would sell Eagle to him and he didn't know how that would interfere with everything. "I think I'm going to have enough trouble covering the spiteful one I just bought. Why, can't you control him?"

"I thought we were doing this exercise to see how _you could _control him," the man responded.

Fox rolled his eyes. "Oh, my bad." With that he moved over to Eagle, then glanced up at the man. What was he going to do? He needed to communicate things to Eagle clearly, quickly, and without anyone else letting on. He leaned over Eagle, who was clutching at his side. Fox sighed internally. It wasn't good that he was doing that, was it? Fox asked himself. He took the palm of his hand and pressed it against Eagle's forearm. "You'd better damn well listen to me," he growled, looking Eagle straight in the eyes, "if you do not listen to me, I will _throw you to the wolves_. You're to stay where you are at now and not cause trouble. Understand?"

Eagle looked up at Fox, trying to make sure he got the message right. Wolf and the gang were hopefully on their way. Maybe MI6 was involved, it looked like SAS definitely was. He needed to see how much Fox knew about what was going on without this man catching on to them. "Throw me to the wolves?" he said, snorting. "Where did you grow up, London?"

"We're in the United States, you dumbass," Fox told him. "Get a good grip of geography." Fox glanced at the other man. "He have a younger brother?"

"Yup. Want me to get him?"

As tempted as Fox was to make sure that Alex was okay he knew he couldn't. "No," he said. He leaned closer down towards Eagle, who was attempting to move away from Fox. Fox could see the man's face twisted in pain as Fox pressed down more on his shoulder. Had someone injured it? Fox frowned. He'd have to try and get Snake to give Eagle first aid somehow. "Wolves, bears, whatever," he responded. He frowned; now how to work the SAS in this conversation? He turned back to the other man. "If that threat doesn't work," he said, kicking Eagle in the small of his back, "You know what might?" He knew Ealge would get their code.

The man raised his eyebrows. "I'm curious now."

"You have any latrines? Make him clean out those. I bet he hates doing that. It's like hell on earth is on the way when you do that." Fox smirked, and Eagle knew exactly what he meant, even though he was going to give Fox hell later for the idea.

There was someone higher up than Fox on the way.

The man smirked. "Good idea. I don't have any latrines. I wonder if I could make some."

Eagle gave a low chuckle. "You could. Just go piss outside in the ditch, where there's dirt-"

There was a well-aimed kick to his back and everything went black.

## break ##

Alex glanced up as the door opened, not failing to notice that the other boy's face looked somewhat familiar. Alan rushed towards the man. "Scott!" he said, breathig a sigh of relief.

"Yup, that's my name, kiddo," Scott said, ruffling Alan's hair. Alex felt a pang go through his heart. This sucked. Everyone here had family but him. Oh, sure, he had Eagle, but the man wasn't even really his half brother as he claimed to Scott.

That was probably a good thing.

The door opened. "I wanted to let you boys know that for the next two weeks, Scott will be staying in the same room as you. We will move a cot in for him tonight."

Alan looked like he was about to pass out from excitement.

"He will be helping to supervise you in your homework. There will be some end-of-the-year tests you will all need to pass, and he's here to make sure everyone studies. That's his slave assignment." The man smiled. "Joseph, welcome to the family. I am Father David."

"You already welcomed me into the family," Joe spoke up. "But I appriciate the second thought."

The man walked over to Joe and backhanded him, causing the teenage boy to fall on the floor. "Do you want to spend time in solitary, brat?"

"That depends. Does it get me away from you?"

Alex groaned, loudly, drawing both Joe and the other man's attention from each other and back to him. "I'm so _pleased_ to be welcomed to the family."

The man looked furious but kept his temper. "Scott, they are yours to keep track of now. That means if they fuck up I'lll punish you for it. Got it?"

"Got it," Scott mutered.

Surveying the group once more, the man looked at him. "Wow. This is the least cheery group I've ever met today. Okay, I'm gone." With that, he slammed the door shut.

Alan hugged at Scott tighter. Alex observed the two, noticing that Scott placed a comforting hand gently on his wrist as he surveyed Alan. Alan had new bruises from solitary. Alex _really_, really wanted to know how he got those bruises from solitary. He could also see the marks around Alan's hands from where he had struggled against the chains. At least, that was Alex's assumption. He could tell that Scott was pissed but trying not to show it. .

"Boys," Scott said, "is this room insect free?"

Alex, guessing at what he meant, answered instantly. "Yeah. No cockroaches _or_ termites." No cameras or bugs. Thank God for small favors.

"Great," Scott said, looking at Alex, not getting the K-Unit code terms. Alex only smirked. "I'm guessing you all realize that they aren't exactly letting me here just because of the goodness of their heart, nor to help you boys study for tests."

"I had a sinking feeling," Joe admitted as he ran his hand through his blonde hair. A pupy dog expression was marked clearly on his face. Alex could tell that he was dying to ask how Frank was but was holding off.

"They're planning another sacrafice to Hitler again," Scott said. "It won't be one of you, I can tell you that. And I do not think it will be me. Still, we can't take chances. With _anyone_. That means that we need an escape plan and we need it fast."

"And one that works, too," Joe spoke up. "We don't want them to sacrafice to Hitler any sooner than planned."

"So basically, our homework is that we're trying to escape?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrwo.

"Basically. Because I really don't want to get the crap beaten out of me when you fail your tests. So, anyone have any ideas?"

As Joe and Alan began outlaying what they knew about the place, Alex grinned. Operation Improve Morale was successful.

Now it was Operation Improve The Chance of The Best Escape Attempt.

"I think one of us needs to slip out, quietly," Alex spoke up. They all turned to look at him. "Come on. We can spend all of this time planning an escape, and it might work, or one of us can slip out like a small, small firefly and go away. Who has the best chance of raising a ruckus?"

"Alan," Joe said instantly, looking at the teenager. "I don't know much about your Dad, but I know he has money. If you got out of here and escaped, your dad could bring a hell of a lot more wrath down on the ring than my could, even with his PI status."

Alex glanced back at Scott, who was covering his eyes. Clearly he didn't like the idea of sending his younger brother to escape knowing that there was a chance that the teen might get beaten up. Damn. Too bad for him. "What do you think, Scott?"

Scott closed his eyes. "I think I hate that it makes so much sense."

_Maybe they were finally getting somewhere._

Then, Scott said, "But do you really think I'm going to send my baby brother out knowing that there's a chance that he'll get killed?"

_Or maybe not._

"Scott! I'm fourteen, not two!" Alan interjected.

"And these guys have AKA-47s and trained sniping skills!"

And with that, the arguing began.

## break ##

Challenges:

Which one of the boys will attempt to escape?

What was the coded message Fox was trying to get across to Eagle? What was the coded message Eagle was trying to get across to Fox?

What are the sergeant and Wolf doing now?

Read and review! The review button gets angry when it gets lonely… Writer With Sprite


	11. Come On Don't Say Goodbye

"Hey!" Alex spoke up, finally snapping Scott and Alan out of their long-heated argument. "I have an idea," he finally said. Everyone turned to him at once, something that would've been funny, had the situation not been so serious.

"Go ahead," Scott said, giving a fire-like look to Alan.

"What if I escaped?"

At that moment Scott opened his mouth to speak and Alex waved him off. "No, look. Hear me out. I don't really have anyone on the outside. My guardian is dead. I know Eagle has some buddies who will probably come looking for him," Alex said with a sad sigh.

"Wait, don't you and your brother share the same family?" Joe asked. Wouldn't Eagle's buddies come looking for Alex, too? He could see the same confusion written on Scott's face.

"We're half-brothers, and if you shut up I'll share the story later. Anyway, I've been in more than my fair share of situations like this and I know what risks are involved. Personally, I'm all for getting out of here - ideally sooner rather than later," he added. "They already killed my guardian, so..." he let out a breath. He couldn't believe Jack was dead.

"So where would you go to when you escaped?"

"I could go to either of you guys' parents," Alex offered. "I have this really bad feeling that we should not trust the local police."

"I agree completely that we shouldn't trust the police," Joe offered. "My second week here Frank escaped. He went to the police for help and got in a phone call to Dad. The police hung up on him and then they dragged him back here."

Scott bit his lip. "That sounds like a plan. What if you went to my Dad? Alan, what do you think?"

Alan nodded. "Yeah. Go to Dad. He has a whole building in NYC and I bet that's where he'll be too. He could be at the island..."

"But Ann-Marie knows how to raise him," Scott said as he cleared his throat. He would be this father wasn't taking on many Thunderbird missions with him and Alan missing. "Alex... What do you know about 'Jeff Tracy' slash Mr. Tracy?"

Thoughtful for a minute, Alex frowned; the name sounded extremely familiar. He just needed to place it. "He's rich, right?"

Scott nodded.

"He has five kids..." Alex searched the rest of his memory. "Yup, that's about it... all I know."

Scott grinned widely. "'Rich' is an understatement. Okay, don't take this as bragging... It's not meant to be," he added hastily. "He's a billionaire. Tons of money; lots of power. Doesn't really use it a lot. He probably is now, though. Anyway, I'm thinking that he could use that to help take down the organization, and connect with Joe's dad."

Alex nodded but not before fear seized him. "What if he doesn't believe me?"

Alan and Scott glanced at each other. "A note?" Alan asked.

"A note," Scott confirmed. There were footsteps by the door and all three boys turned back to their homework. Alex wasn't thinking of the numbers that swam before him but of the trip he'd have to make.

I just hope that whoever this Jeff Tracy is, Alan said to himself, sending a silent prayer to the sky above, he'll listen to me.

The door swung open, and all three boys turned to glance at the man. Scott slowly rose. "Problem?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The man smiled. "Just watching you." He glanced at the three boys, looking at each of them for a brief moment. "Nope. No problem. We'll put a tracker chip on each of our blondies soon."

Alan scowled. "My name is _Alan_, not blondie."

Joe and Alex shared sympathetic looks at each other as they watched Alan get backhanded and fall to the floor. Part of Alex felt bad for Alan. The other part said that Alex probably shouldn't have been so damn sassy.

"Maybe we'll even make that tonight," the man responded. "At least for _you_, anyway."

"Fuck you," Alan snarled. Scott's eyebrows raised, and Alex got the feeling Alan didn't swear very much. With that, the door slammed and Scott breathed a sigh of frustration.

"We need to move up our escape plans," Alex said bluntly. All the eyes turned towards him. "Seriously, if we can't get out of here before they get those chips on us -"

"We're dead men," Scott nodded in understanding. "One of us, if not two of us, will have to go." He helped Alan up. "Buddy, please don't antagonize the nice gunmen anymore, okay?" he asked. "I understand you're pissed about your name, but please... there are bigger battles."

Alan grinned. "Just staying in character. If they think I'm a brat, they'll focus more on me. Let's do this. All three of us escape. We all try and get a message out. One of us should get away, right?"

At the look on Scott's face, Alex winced. This was going to be a long unwonderful night.

* * *

Eagle groaned as he awoke, wondering what he'd done to deserve getting picked on... again. He sighed and closed his eyes, thinking about getting away. He wanted to so badly. He opened his eye and glanced up, seeing Frank.

"You look like you feel a little better."

"I feel like shit... What happened?" Eagle asked as he got up, ignoring the aches and pains in his back. He glanced around. "Where is Scott?"

Frank scowled. "They moved him. As far as what happened, I don't know. Did you piss off someone?"

Suddenly, everything came flooding back to Eagle. He remembered. How could he not remember? Why did he have to decide to piss off Fox? "That new slave owner guy..."

"You mean the new guy who bought a slave? Yeah. He's a cult person. You piss him off?"

"Yeah..." Eagle said, his mind reeling. Squeaky clean Fox had brought a slave. How did that work? Who was his slave? Eagle was dying to know the answers to the questions but doubted his questioning would get anywhere. He sighed before glancing at Frank.

"How'd you do that already?"

"...I don't know. Although I guess I know how I pissed off the other man... I told him his breath reeked," Eagle said even as he grinned at Frank. "Hey, we need to search for insects, 'cuz I need to talk to you." I know exactly how I did it, but I'm not sharing that information with you anytime soon.

Frank rolled his eyes but methodically began searching. He rolled his eyes twice in a row when he saw Eagle shake out the sheets. "Clear," he finally remarked.

"Okay, now that that's settled..." Frank sat back on the bed., looking Eagle directly in his eyes. "What do you want to tell me?"

Biting his lip, Eagle debated exactly what to tell him. "You know what SAS is?"

A blank look crossed Frank's face. "It has something to do with the UK, right?"

"Yup. Most people don't get that far," Eagle complimented him. "Very nice. It's basically a seret selection unit of equivalent to your Delta Force."

"...And you're telling me this because..." Frank asked. He paused for a minute. "Hold up a second. You and Alex are from the United Kingdom right?"

"Yup." Eagle paused. "I would prefer that this be kept secret. The real reason why I cannot give out my name is because when I was captured, I was on off-duty from SAS."

"...You're SAS?" Frank gapped. "But - how did they capture you?"

"Was stupid. Let my guard down for a second. Heard a noise outside. They tranqued me. I wasn't out immediately but whatever they used must've been stronger than usual because I started to feel the effects of the dart. They realized I wasn't out, and so they decided to use colorform on me. I had almost managed to take one of them out when suddenly one of them had handcuffs on me and put weight on my pressure point. My body was done, I was down. Rookie mistake."

"Rookie mistake? Are you kidding me? They took Joe and me out with tranq darts. I'm amazed you stood up through one of them."

"I blame selection training," Eagle replied with a shrug. "Anyway, we really need to start planning away out of here... I might be able to get into contact with someone who can help," he said, thinking of Ben, "but I don't know how soon it will come." And besides - it would be so worth it to get out of there before MI6's investigation started and see the priceless look on K-Unit's faces.

Besides, surely once he got out of there, their investigation would be done, right?

He had no idea how wrong he was.

* * *

Snake groaned as he flooded back to consciousness. He tugged against the handcuffs that held him firmly in place before he fully remembered where he was. _Oh, yeah_. That was right. He was bought by Ben. Thank God at least for small favors, that part of the auction had gone as planned.

What hadn't gone as planned, but may have worked out for the greater good, was that Fox was invited by someone to "talk about how to best discipline slaves." Snake had been left alone in the warehouse while that had happened. He must have been knocked out and picked back up, because now he was moved to a different spot. He sighed as he groaned; he would have to start working that out, now. Somehow, he did not think that Fox would tell him.

Sighing, he wondered where Wolf was, hoping that the SAS operative was okay. It would bloody well suck to have to find someone new to replace him in the field, because as far as Snake was concerned, he was irreplaceable. He sighed and shook his head, telling himself not to think like that. That wouldn't happen. That _couldn't_ happen.

They'd all get out of this. Together.

Or else MI6 was going down.

Not that they weren't already anyway, Snake thought ruefully as he struggled against his chains.

* * *

Wolf groaned as he looked at the sergeant. MI6 had already sent Fox and Snake in as undercover agents. There was still no lead on Eagle. Now, to make things worse...

"You're kidding me, right? No... I see... Thank you. Thank you. We'll be at 'the bank' shortly." The sergeant clicked off the phone. "We're not going to the 'bank'," he said. He closed his eyes and sighed, trying to think how to best word this. "Cub's missing."

Wolf stared at him, blinking twice. "Wait. Cub's missing?"

"Yup."

"Little, annoying, pain in the ass, got shot on the French Alps, has a rich daddy, always in trouble Cub?"

"Yup."

"What the hell-" Wolf let out a frustrated breath. "And it's connected?"

"Yup."

Damn.

This was just awesome.

* * *

Okay, short I know - although it is over 2k words. Since I have Thursday off I'll try and update some as long as my computer is in a cooperative mood. Hope that you enjoy. Please review, and please don't forget to check out the story I'm co-authoring with Torn Apart Paper Dinosaur on our Writers4All account. Thanks again to TAPD for her awesome help on the previous chapter. Oh, and Wolf will find out that Alex doesn't have a rich daddy eventually. Although technically Alex _does_ have a rich daddy, if you think about it - MI6 is after all pretty rich.

Challenges:  
Will Alex escape?  
Who will he be able to get to, Fenton Hardy or Jeff Tracy?  
Will he believed when he goes to escape?  
Who will be punished when he's escaped, if he does get free?

Enjoy! I look forward to reading your reviews._**  
**_


	12. Eagle Finds Out A Bad Secret

_A/N: Thank you to **Torn Apart Dinosaur **for her lovely help with Eagle's section. Please enjoy. If there are any errors please point them out to me. I did proofread, but it's 2:10 A.M. here. Be nice! _

* * *

Alex Rider groaned silently as he watched the clock tick down. It was almost midnight. That was when he and Scott had silently agreed that the plan would be worked out. He was nervous about the plan. There were so many reasons for it not to work. Part of him screamed, why trust Jeff Tracy? Why not go to MI6? But he could see how clearly Scott and Alan loved their father.

That made him willing to trust him, if even a little bit.

The plan was stupid simple.

So simple that Alex was sure something would go wrong, because fate just loved to mess with his plans.

Still, he knew he couldn't think like that. He had to think positively. After all, one of his favorite teachers - back before this whole MI6 mess - had told him that thinking positively was the best way to succed for something.

If he ever needed success in his life he needed it now. This plan had to work, because Alex wasn't sure how he would feel if Eagle got hurt when he failed.

A tiny voice in his head told him he'd get hurt anyway but Alex ignored it.

Joe and Alan were sleeping on the beds. Or at least they appeared to be. Alex really, really hoped Alan didn't get pissed off, do something stupid and attempt to run away. He was sure that in another world, the teenager might get away, but these spies were cutthroat, tight spies that did want to harm the boys every chance they got.

"Ready?" Scott's voice hissed in his ear. Alan nodded. He grimanced as the door opened and Jake slipped in. Jake hadn't been told of their plan to escape. All he had been told was that Alex needed first aid and that Scott needed to slip him out at midnight.

"Let's go," Jake said, looking nervous. The three retreated into the kitchen, where Jake handed Alex a backpack. Alex took it and noted instantly that it was full.

Scott frowned at Alex's reaction. "Jake?" he asked.

"Oh, come off it Scott. I'm not stupid; I know you're not asking for first aid at midnight. Even as cruel as he is our Master wouldn't hesitate to give a blondie- sorry, Alex- first aid. You're clearly attempting to escape. The only question I have is, what story should we make?"

Alex gaped. Holy crud. This guy would make an excellent law enforcement officer some day. "Well," Scott drawled, "we were going to make up some story about how Alex got angry, attacked me, and went fleeing the scene."

"I have a better one for you," Jake said. Alex took in his appearance. The boy looked exhausted and had bags under his eyes. Alex also noted his brown hair. His anger rose once again; how shallow were these people that they were judging everything based on hair color?

"Oh yeah, what is it?" Scott asked. Alex could tell that he wasn't full of spite.

"I accidentally leave your door unlocked. Alex, seeing the opportunity, took off. You never heard him leave becuase you were helping me prepare Master's meal in the kitchen."

"That works," Alex said. Or at least it sounded good in theory. He sighed; either way was liable to get Scott beaten up.

Scott must've read his mind, because he said, "Don't worry, Alex. I'll take the beating. Just - go get our father and bring him back here."

"That, I can do." Or at least Alex hoped so.

Going in the direction Jake pointed Alex fled the house.

## break ##

Eagle finished folding what he was folding before he looked up at the other man. "C-can I help you?" he asked. He had decided to appear more nervous by stuttering.

"What do you have there?" he asked as he stalked closer to Eagle, who had to release his death grip on the piece of paper as it was torn from his hand.

"N-nothing!" Eagle said. "I d-didn't even get the ch-chance to read it! I-"

"Where did you grow up? In a barn? You forgot to start your sentence with 'The Slave', gosh and to think I got the semi-smart one..."

WHAT THE HELL? Eagle thought. He remembered no such rule but couldn't think what was being said. "Sorry, Sir, the slave didn't l-l-look at it..." he let his voice trail off wondering what to say next.

"Where the fuck is that blondie of a retard who has a low IQ that you call your half-brother?"

Eagle froze. Had they figured out that they weren't really related? "The s-slave says he is sorry, but that he r-really is my h-half brother."

The man rolled his eyes. "You can stop bullshitting me. I know he's your biological brother. I don't know why you don't claim him, and I don't care. Don't you know that we DNA test everyone before they walk through our doors?" he grabbed Eagle by the chin and yanked him up. "Where is your brother?"

His jaw dropped, and his heart started racing. Cub was his brother? How? He didn't even know his own mother. He just knew that she was a prostitute. He'd been given up for adoption at age two. Was Cub somehow related to him that way? He was sitting on the floor and glanced up at the man. "...I'm s-so-sorry, what did you say?"

"Now I know you're just plain stupid," the man said before kicking him in the gut. "You forgot to say 'The Slave', and I'm not going to repeat myself again so listen here, that idiot brother of yours is real, so there's no lying. Now, I'm feeling nice, so I'll ask again, where is he!"

"T-the s-sl-slave d-d-doesn't know -know - know sir!" Eagle stuttered as he curled up to protect himself, trying to look innocent and terrified. The hardest part of this situation was not lashing out and killing the man; he was pretty sure he could break the man's neck. He couldn't let himself do it, though. "Th-the slave sugg-ggests you c-c-check with the m-m-m-master!" The stuttering was an act, but the SAS agent was worried. What had happened to Cub?

The man kicked Eagle in the face, and growled at him, "Did I ask you if I wanted a slave's suggestion?"

"I-I-I-..."

The man grabbed his shirt, and hauled him up, only to punch him in the side, and spit in his face before dropping him. "Now, stop thinking you're anything remotely near a human being, and drop the 'I', and tell me where your brother is!"

"T-th-the slave t-th-thinks he is in his r-r-room s-s-sir."

"God, will you ever learn! You're not even worth the effort! Don't call me 'Sir', that's for people above you, and I own you, therefore I am 'Master'. Be sure to remember that slave."

"You're fucking nuts if you fucking think I'm calling you master."

The man didn't say anything, but forcefully dragged Eagle out of the room, and down the hallway to a smaller room. Backhanding him, he threw Eagle in, and as he closed the door he said, "Maybe some time to yourself will remind you who you belong too, and perhaps you'll remember where Alex is."

"Go to hell!" Eagle yelled through the door.

The door opened again "When I find your little ass brother Alex I will make sure to punish him for his crimes." He made sure to check Eagle's handcuffs that he'd cuffed only seconds ago and slammed the door shut again, leaving Eagle in the dark mulling over what to do next. Eagle was finally alone in the pitch black room. He sighed and shook his head.

So this was solitary.

And it was in a laundry room closet.

Fucking awesome.

* * *

24 Hours Later

Snake groaned as he trailed Ben towards the meeting room. "You wanted to talk to me, Mr. Jameston?" Ben asked, ignoring Snake's more audible groan.

"I did. I thought it odd that you only had one slave yesterday." The man got straight to business. He was wearing a business suit and was leaning against the counter.

"Sir, with all due respect, in time I'd love to have more than one slave. Right now, however, I'm struggling to afford one."

"I have someone who I believe aided an escape attempt yesterday. I think it would do him well to be watched by someone. One, because I might kill him. Two, because I think if he's separated from his brother, he'll start to listen."

"Sure. I can do that." Ben volunteered himself instantly, knowing if someone else got the slave they'd kill him. Or at least do some serious harm. "What's his name?"

"It doesn't really matter, but his name is Scott. Before he came here, his last name was Tracy. It's essential that you don't let him escape."

"I can do that."

"I sure hope so. If he escapes, and gets to his father, this whole ring could be blown to hell." The man snapped his fingers. "Bring the older Tracy in here, please."

Ben sighed. He'd gone from living by himself and taking on his own missions to going undercover in two days with Snake, and now, he gained another slave. Another person, he corrected himself. He really, really wasn't sure how he liked this.

But it looked like he was going to find out anyway.


	13. Fly Away Little Birdie

A/N: Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay! I've officially graduated now, so here's to hoping that updates are both quick and speedy! By the way, thanks to _BookDancer_ for the genius idea that Eagle and Alex should be brothers. It worked perfectly with their 'DNA tests.'

Writer With Sprite

* * *

Alex Rider groaned as his foot slipped yet again and he tripped, falling yet again into the mud. He supposed on one hand, it was a good thing that he looked so dirty. He certainly looked nothing like the teenage boy that had escaped a few hours before. On the other hand, he wasn't sure that any store would welcome him in.

The guy that said he'd helped him escape - Jake, Alex thought his name was – had prepared him well. The backpack was full of food and water, and if Alex stretched it well enough, he'd be able to make it last a few days, if not more. Alex hadn't exactly had time to take stalk of what was in it before fleeing.

Alex was exhausted but he wasn't stopping. He knew that he would have to make the most of his time while in the dark. He had no doubt that they would soon notice him missing and send a search party after him. What would be in the search party Alex didn't know. Dogs? How many humans?

How many police were on their side? Alex vividly recalled Joe's story of Frank being taken back from the local police and beaten as punishment for escaping. There was a reason why he wasn't simply calling 911. Or at least, that's what he thought the American's number for help was. He was so used to dialing 999 that he was liable to do that by mistake.

Mildly, he wondered if anyone had noticed him missing yet. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about Jack's death. That wouldn't help him be productive right now. He moved through the night again, noticing that the sun was about to rise in the sky. The night wasn't quite as pitch black.

He would need a place to stop soon.

He frowned as he saw the cave. That could work. Assuming, of course, that it wasn't hidden with bears or the like; bugs he could tolerate, but not bears. He frowned as he walked towards there, listening closely for any sounds.

There was nothing.

He frowned as he approached the cave, wishing he had a flashlight. But he didn't. He hesitantly went in, pausing.

There weren't likely to be any bears in here, right?

It took a minute for Alex's eyes to adjust to the darkness, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the small, shallow cave was empty. Perfect. There was just enough space to sleep for the night; no, scratch that, day - and he wouldn't have to worry about being seen.

He opened the backpack, now finally having enough light to see. How had Jake known that they were planning to escape? Alex guessed that Jake was just right; that he knew that they wouldn't be getting medical attention that late at night. Maybe Jake had been planning to go himself and had decided to give the backpack to Alex when he'd planned on escaping.

Jake had planned well, Alex saw. As Alex slowly unpacked each food item, he mentally calculated how many days the supply would last. Eating as he normally would, he could probably make the food last for four days. If he stretched it, and only ate one or two meals a day, he could easily make it last five or six days. That was good. There were four bottles of water in the backpack. Alex sighed; he would have to figure out some creative way to make those stretch. He opened one and drank a little bit now before putting it aside.

He then stared in awe at the clothes. Yeah, those looked like clothes that he'd seen Jake wearing. He would bet dollars to whatever that Jake was planning on escaping and had handed off the task to him with this backpack. The good news was that he and Jake were about the same size and he could easily slip into Jake's clothes.

There was also a flashlight with spare batteries in the bottom of the backpack. Was Jake a boyscout, or something? Digging deeper, Alex grinned at the matches. He knew they would eventually come in handy. His eyes widened as he looked at the last item.

_Money_?

Sure enough, it was American money. Alex frowned, trying to remember his lessons he'd received from Ian on exchange conversions. He studied the shape. It read "quarter dollar". Alex had watched enough American television to know that was twenty-five cents. He saw four of those and two bills. One was marked $1, another marked $5.

More than enough money to make a phone call. Now he just had to get to a phone. He had the Tracy's father's number memorized and tucked away in their bag. Joe had also insisted he take _his_ father's number just in case. And so that he could call him with the news that the boys were still alive.

Alex slowly repacked the bag, hoping against all uncertainty that Scott and Jake wouldn't be punished too much for helping him.

_I'm doing this for you, Jack, _he vowed silently as he packed the last item into the bag. _I refuse to let those sons-of-bitches get away with hurting you. I refuse, I refuse, I refuse. _

* * *

Snake glared at Ben as a teenage boy was roughly shoved in his room. "He's staying with us for a few days. Do me a favor and assess him. Make sure he doesn't need any medical shit." With that, the door slammed shut.

"I'm Snake," Snake said as he offered his hand to the man. He now could clearly see he was older than a teenager, but just barely. Maybe twenty-two, maybe twenty-three.

"I'm Scott." The man frowned. "Snake, huh? Are you any relation to Eagle?"

Snake frowned; how should he best approach this question? "Yeah, I know him. Is he here?"

Scott shook his head. "No. He was at the last place I was at."

Well, at least it looked like he was alive. "How is he doing? Is he okay?"

"As far as I know. They locked him in solitary, though, just before they shoved me over here, so I didn't really get a chance to see him."

"Just so long as he's alive," Snake said, thinking dark things about the man who had captured both him and Cub.

"His brother is, too."

"Brother?"

"Yeah, he had some other kid named Alex with him," Scott confirmed.

Good. So the two were alive.

Now they just had to figure out how to get out of here, Snake thought as he turned his attention towards Scott's bleeding hand. "How's the kid doing?"

"He should be okay." Scott lowered his voice. "He, uh, may have kind of uh, - he probably won't be here when they check on him."

"Why not?"

"He might've flown like a little birdie far, far away."

Of course Cub would try and escape. And actually succeed. How were they supposed to find him again? What happened if he got caught?

It looked like life just got more interesting.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updating; thank Rainstripe for suggesting that I update this one. I would like to say that anyone who reviews will get a one paragraph sneak peak of the next chapter before it is out, and anyone who answers one of the challenges (or more) will get a two paragraph sneak peak. Enjoy!

**Challenges:**

**How long will it take Alex to get to Jeff Tracy or Fenton Hardy, and what trouble will he run into while doing so?**

**When will Snake and Eagle first see each other?**

**What are Wolf and the ****Sergeant **doing?

**_...Stay tuned..._ **


	14. Hidey Time actual 14

Alex groaned as he awoke, the dark night sky reminding him of just where he was. He'd just spent the past who knew how long walking through trees, shrubs, and just about everything to try and get away. Now he was resting. He'd eaten Jake's food. He was eyeing the sky. As soon as it got dark, he was taking off again. He knew that time was of essence.

Sure, he may be okay now. But Eagle was probably getting beat up for his escape, and who knew what was happening to the other boys, especially Scott, who had helped him escape? Part of Alex doubted that the man would place Alan and Joe as helpers of the escape, but he didn't know that.

Besides, Alex was no fan of the forest and spiders, and he didn't feel like spending longer here than he had too. Alex took a last gulp of the water before settling it into his backpack as the first star rose into the night. The moon's shadows had already begun to illuminate the ground, and it was now his time to make a way for himself to escape.

The backpack was closed and slid firmly on his back. He listened carefully for footsteps but did not hear any. He'd changed clothes and left his muddy, dirty, torn clothes by the cave he'd stayed at, leaving the clothes pointing in the opposite direction he was going.

He personally didn't actually know where he was going. He was following the river, though. It was his theory that the river had to lead to somewhere. He saw the rails around the river and suspected that there would be civilization somewhere.

As Alex got up, he muttered, "Come on, this is no time for sissies," and started walking.

There were several benefits of walking at night, he mused to himself as he walked through the area. He suspected his captors would be organizing the search party by daylight, and breaking for rest during the night.

"I really hope this throws them off," Alex said under his breath before he realized he was talking to himself. He decided he didn't really care. He sighed as he looked at the river. Alex was grateful beyond belief that it hadn't rained.

Drip drops were not what Alex wanted right now. Unless they were lemony chocolate. Alex would kill for some good food. At least he had food, though, thanks to Jake. Mildly, the teenager wondered how difficult it would be to fish from the stream. He'd always wanted to try that. Not tonight, though.

Tonight he had to cover as much ground as possible. He had to get to a phone. He knew he couldn't trust MI6 to bail him out and Jack was dead. Whoever Eagle's unit leader - Wolf, he thought - was would certainly want to know he was missing, but Alex had no way to contact him. His best bet was the Tracy family. He really, really hoped that they were trustworthy, because he didn't know what he would do otherwise.

Except for maybe try and find out where some _good_ cops were. Alex bit his lip. The Tracy family had to be good. At least they were good to Scott and Alan, he thought, that was a good sign. Scott and Alan _really _wanted to be back.

And there was always Mr. Hardy, Joe and Frank's father. He'd have to try and call him too.

Alex stopped when he heard the growl in the distance. He'd almost dropped to the ground and covered himself before realizing it wasn't a bullet (yes, he was being a little paranoid), but he didn't care. The growl came again and he realized it was coming from a rather large wolf.

Shit. This was so not what he needed.

## break ##

Eagle groaned as he awoke. His arms were stiff from being tied behind his back, but that was to be expected. Otherwise he was in good health and seemed to be no worse for wear, except for the fact that he was starving and thirsty.

He couldn't tell how long he had been out, but it was long enough for his stomach to growl. Eagle didn't even have a second's notice as the door flew open and he was grabbed by his shoulders. "This is the brat's brother," he responded.

"Ah. You mean the brat who we're calling Alex, but is actually Alan?"

"No... We call him Alan," the man said. "Just trust me on this," he added.

"Sure. Whatever," the man responded. "Why do you switch out their names, anyway? Why not just rename them? It'd be much simpler," he said.

"Because I _feel_ like doing it this way," the man said as he crossed his arms. "Because it's fun to see them be called by another person's name who's in the same room."

Eagle shook his head. Or at least he would have if the man had let go of him, but since Jerk-Face was still clenching Eagle's hair, he couldn't move. "You're all weird," he said with a sniff of disdain.

"And I don't know how the hell these two are related. I swear his younger brother is light years ahead of him," the man said, reaching and grabbing Eagle by the chin. "Okay, you're going to listen to us, you son of a bitch, or we're going to kill your brother when we find him. Where is he?"

"Why would I tell you where he is if you're going to kill him? I don't want you to kill him. That's mean," Eagle pouted. "I don't think I should tell him," he said, glancing up at the other man. He was planning on playing the two of them against each other for information.

Sure, it would result in him getting beaten up, but he'd get some interesting information that way, right?

"You can tell me, then. Where would your brother go?"

"I don't _know_," Eagle pouted. "We haven't been close friends the past few years." Understatement award of the past year. Eagle hadn't even seen the teen since Hell, and that had been the _only_ time Eagle recalled seeing him in his _life_.

Eagle was still trying to digest how Cub was his brother.

"Where is he?"

So they were playing good cop, bad cop. And they were doing an _awful_ job of it. Eagle wrinkled his nose. "...I don't know."

"Where. Is. He.?"

"I don't know! What'd you do, not make his favorite food? He's very stubborn. Oh! I know! I bet he's running away, because you can't find him, right?" Eagle questioned.

"Where is he? Did you help him run away?" the man asked as he wrenched Eagle's hand behind his back.

"...No! Why would I do that?" Eagle pouted, fully lying. He hadn't helped Alex escape but he would have. "I like it here," he lied, "You guys have food."

"I think he's high," the first man whispered. "Maybe we need to stop feeding him drugs in his food."

Great, so they were feeding him drugged food. Just what he wanted to know! Not really. Not at all. At least playing them for information _seemed_ to be working. He sighed and counted his blessings that he was still alive.

Wolf always had threatened to kill him for thinking positively...

"Where is your brother?"

"I don't know, Sir. Maybe you could try asking him. He probably knows where he is." Yes, Eagle was still stuck on the 'dumb kid' routine. He was protecting who he really was (a highly trained SAS Agent) so that he could fight back when the time was right.

And then would he ever strike back.

"Oh, God! Are we fucking back to this again? Start your damn sentence with 'the slave,' and for heaven's sakes, _don't use the word Sir!_ That's why you're in here in the first place, right?"

"I hate you. Go away. You're mean," Eagle pouted.

"Start. Your. Sentence. With. The. Slave," the man ground out.

"No."

"Jolley, you're losing sight of the important thing here," the first man said. "We're here to interrogate him about Alex. Lecture him on slave culture life later."

The man drew himself up to his full height. "I fully intend too."

## break ##

Wolf glared at the sergeant. "What happened?"

"We just got a call from Fox. He knew he we were on the case so he contacted us instead of the sixes." The sergeant had been ready to break down the camp immediately but knew that common sense was important here - any single wrong move and it all could go wrong.

"Oh, joy. What's he say?"

"He knows where Snake is - he bought him. He says Eagle's still at the compound, but praise the Lord they don't know his name yet _or _that he's SAS, just that he calls himself 'Eagle.' .According to Fox, anyway."

"Oh fuck."


	15. I've Tasted Blood

A/N: Wow, how long has it been since I've updated this thing? *Ducks and hides from all the reviewers*. I'm so, so sorry. Real life has been a huge pain. On the plus note, I've graduated college, gotten a job, and am exploring going back to school and getting my bachelor's degree. Also, I'm co-writing a book with my friend-hopefully we'll be published one day!

Anyway, enough about me. You're really after the chapter. Thanks to anyone still reading this. Expect to see my other stories updated soon.

## LAST CHAPTER... ###

_Wolf glared at the sergeant. "What happened?"_

_"We just got a call from Fox. He knew he we were on the case so he contacted us instead of the sixes." The sergeant had been ready to break down the camp immediately but knew that common sense was important here - any single wrong move and it all could go wrong._

_"Oh, joy. What's he say?"_

_"He knows where Snake is - he bought him. He says Eagle's still at the compound, but praise the Lord they don't know his name yet or that he's SAS, just that he calls himself 'Eagle.' According to Fox, anyway."_

_"Oh fuck."_

* * *

Alex shuffled, looking out at the busy area. He didn't know how he'd manage to make it this far in just three days. America was huge, absolutely huge. Then again, if he was able to make it close to New York in three days, perhaps his captors were holding him somewhere close?

He knew he had to be close to the Tracy enterprise. Rather than figure out how to find a pay phone and call Mr... Whatever his last name was - right, Tracy-Alex decided to just find the building. He had a thud-thud-thud going on in his chest. Would Mr. Tracy believe him? Would he listen to him? Would he pay attention? Or would he assume that Alex had something to do with his children's disappearance? Well, screw children; Alan was a teenager and Scott was an adult...

He came to a stop and blinked. There, in front of him, was the Tracy enterprises in all its glory. He sighed before looking at himself - he wasn't going in there looking like he'd just crawled through the mud.

There was a fast food restaurant three doors down. Alex went in, his heart pounding the whole time, and made his way to the bathroom. Thankfully, it wasn't one of those bathrooms where you needed a key to get in. He opened the door and locked it behind him before tearing off most of his clothes and replacing them with the change Jake bought. He was glad that he hadn't used them in the woods.

At least taking the bath last night in that river - err, the penny fountain - hadn't left him looking like a total slime.

After changing into fresh clothes, Alex dumped his old one in the bathroom, feeling mildly sorry for whoever came in here. He even swapped out his shoes for Jake's once he realized they fit perfectly. He ran his fingers through his hair and determined he looked presentable.

He felt a thousand times better leaving the restaurant. He didn't stop to order, even though he had some money. He wanted to get to the Tracy enterprise now. He threw on his hoodie when he stepped outside and nervously looked at the Tracy building.

"Who're you here to see?" One of the employees asked, gently, softly.

"Uh, Mr. Tracy," Alex said, knowing how ludicrous that sounded. Who would think that HE was here to see the department head?

"I'm Ann Marie," she said gently. "Why are you here to see him?"

"I, I have information about his sons." Alex was amazed that she was even listening to him. He wasn't sure how she'd react to that.

"Come with me. He's actually here today, he flew down to sign some papers." Ann Marie opened the door. "How do you know them?"

"I... I was kidnapped, and... they helped me escape," Alex responded, "I... I might know the place where they're being held."

She raised her eyebrows but did not respond further. "Are you from... England?" She asked, trying to place his accent.

"It's a long story," Alex said, "and yeah, I am - but they aren't there... I was hoping to t-tell it once."

She nodded and led him to the elevator, punching in a button and then scanning her fingerprint. "You remind me of Alan..." she said, softly.

Alex smiled gently, unsure what to say. He really hoped she didn't go all sentimental on him or ask for information he wasn't sure he should give. He sighed, looking nervously at his wrist. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Eagle glanced at Scott, who was resting on the floor. "What happened?" he asked.

"Interrogation," Scott said weakly as he held his ribs. "They asked me about whoever tried to escape."

"Yeah, they did that to me too, but not as bad. Are you bleeding anywhere besides your lip? Did they break anything?"

"I don't think so. They were careful, they had their orders. I will be black and blue tomorrow, though," Scott said as he leaned against the table. "Oh, no..."

"What?" Eagle asked.

"I really really hope that they don't try and interrogate Alan. He won't tell them what happened, but the kid is full of spite and will just... it won't be good." Scott closed his eyes. "Alex had really better find Dad, fast."

"You think your Dad can help us?"

"He's got a lot of connections and a lot of wealth. If there's anything anyone can do for us, it's him."

"Do you think the slavers will think that Alex will be going to your father?" Eagle asked, wondering what extremes they would go to keep the kid from getting news to anyone.

Scott shook his head. "No, we were careful in that regard. I hope that he's there before they find out. Dad will protect him." He paused. "I hope Dad believes him. I'm sure he will; I was careful to give him enough things so that he has them. I even gave him my watch."

"You gave him your watch? Why is that important?" Eagle asked, confused.

"It's a long story, but Dad knows it's mine. It has a tracker device on it, but that was smashed a long time ago. They let me keep it because it was broken, and I've been trying to repair it with absolutely no luck. Alan has tried, too, to no avail. So I sent it with him as an identifying mark." Scott leaned back against the wall.

"Here's a cloth for your lip," Eagle said. "We don't have any ice or anything, or I'd give you that."

Scott shrugged. "I'll be okay. I just really hope Alan's okay."

An evil smile spread across Eagle's lips. "You know, I might just have an idea..." he said. "I will tell you about is as soon as I talk to my owner."

"You're not going to tell your owner about Alex though, right?"

Eagle shook his head. Fox would already know. "No. It'll be fine. Just trust me."

"I hope so..." Scott muttered as he looked at the ceiling. "I really hope so."

* * *

Once more, I apologize, and thanks so much to anyone who reads this!

Will Alan be okay? Will Mr. Tracy believe Alex? Will Wolf and the sergeant help with getting the kids out of there?

Find out more soon!

I am to update by Monday!


	16. This Might Actually Work

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I really love them. I haven't forgotten the story, see! I'll try and update the next chapter no later than Friday.

## break ##

Alex glanced up nervously as the doors opened and a man came out. He looked professional, important, like someone who had it all together. Perhaps most importantly, he looked exactly like how Scott and Alan had described their father.

He suddenly swallowed hard, terrified. What if Mr. Tracy didn't believe him? What if Mr. Tracy thought that he had had some part in abducting the other brothers? He let out a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Jeff, this is Alex. He believes he has some information on where Scott and Alan are held."

"They're alive?" were the first words out of Jeff's mouth.

"Yeah, they're alive," Alan nodded. He swallowed. "S-Scott asked me to give this to you," he said, suddenly nervous as he held out the watch. It was the defining moment of truth. Either now Mr. Tracy would believe him or he wouldn't.

Which one would it be? Alan waited with baited breath, hoping that he'd believe him.

Jeff looked at the watch, looking like he'd aged a thousand years in the past ten minutes. "We'll be back upstairs," he said wearily to MaryAnne. "Please postpone my meetings."

She nodded, and the two walked upstairs. "So you know Scott and Alan, then? How are they doing?"

"They're okay," Alex said, his throat still dry. "Scott's worried about Alan, Alan's worried about Scott, both are trying to keep the other out of trouble... that sort of thing."

Jeff smiled. "That seems like my boys." The elevator dinged open on the tenth floor. "This is where we stay when we are in New York City. We can just go in my private office. Do you want anything to eat or drink?"

"Some water would be great," Alan said. He hoped the guy wouldn't drug it, but right now he'd take it even if he would. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Wait a minute - Mr. Tracy was a good guy. Scott and Alan had both said so.

Alex only hoped that hospitality extended to him.

Mr. Tracy returned with the water. "So when did you last see them?"

"Three days ago. They were at..." Alex trailed off, staring at the wall with the picture that was clearly of Scott and Alan. He snapped himself out of it before he gave him the address. "Hopefully they're still there. Or around there. My brother is there too. Half-Brother. Eagle."

Mr. Tracy nodded. "On it. Let me make a few phone calls. Alex? Alex? Are you okay?"

Alex suddenly felt himself tumbling to the ground, and within seconds, he was unconscious.

## break ##

Scott stared out the window blankly as Alan and Joe did their homework. Joe, who was usually hyperactive despite the past six months and what they'd been through, was now unnaturally quiet.

"Are you okay, Joe?" he asked, turning around.

"I miss Frank," Joe sulked. Scott sighed, from what he understood, he hadn't seen his brother since Alex had run away. "I'm worried. I hope he's okay. Is he okay, Scott?"

"I haven't seen him either, Joe."

"But you must have heard something! Anything! Come on!" Joe said.

"I'm sorry, Joe, but I've been cooped up since talking with Eagle. We didn't hear anything about him getting beaten up, or anything like that," Scott said tiredly. "You honestly would be more likely to hear than me, wouldn't they want you to know that he was hurt?"

Joe flinched before mumbling, "Okay... point to Scott."

Scott rubbed his hands through his hair. "I hope Alex is able to pass on some information to Dad."

"Me too," Alan muttered.

Joe flinched. "Do you think your Dad would help me get home too?"

"Yeah, he would. He doesn't leave anyone behind, Joe," Scott reassured him.

"Good, I would be upset if he left me behind," Joe remarked. "What about Frank? Will he help Frank get home too?"

"Yes, Joe."

"What about Eagle?"

"Yeah, he'll help everyone get home." Scott could tell Joe was really tense about something but wasn't sure what. "What's wrong?" he questioned.

"I don't know. I just feel like something really, really bad is about to happen, and I'm really really worried, and I don't know why." Joe looked frustrated. "And I just want to beat the shit out of whatever's making me feel that way, because it's not true. Something good is going to happen - I'm going to think so positive that something good is going to happen!"

Scott blinked, but then turned back to the window. That was pretty typical for Joe. Joe would be down in the dumps and then would want to try and stay positive, so he'd flip back into high speed. It was interesting to say the least, and if Scott didn't think it was situational he'd swear Joe was bipolar.

"Okay..." he said.

Jake opened the door and placed down the meals. He closed the door before sighing and sitting down. Scott turned to him, his full attention on the kid. "What's going on?" he asked.

"They're moving us locations," the kid said tiredly as he leaned against the floor. "I don't understand it. Why are they suddenly uprooting everyone from here and putting us in another place? It just makes no sense. Like, at all."

"That's... that's weird," Scott agreed, an uneasy feeling in his gut.

"I mean, it leads to a few answers, but I'm not comfortable with any of them. You know what I mean? I just feel like there's this thud-thud-thud in my chest that pound-pound-pounds." He let out a frustrated breath. "Sorry guys for rambling. I'm really just supposed to tell you to eat up and pack."

"Did you eat breakfast yet?" Joe asked.

Jake shook his head. "No, I'm on a three-day no eating rule."

"Well screw them, have one of my burritos. I don't like burritos that much anyway," Joe remarked  
oe offered.

"Thanks," Jake said as he ate it. "So I was thinking, in all of the confusion, we could... kinda... take off.."

Scott grinned, his first real grin in a long time. "I love that idea. Let's do it."

## break ##

Eagle groaned as he rolled over. "We already packed everything," he said sleepily as he saw a figure move down the stairs.

"I know, I know," Ben said reassuringly as he walked down the stairs. "But there's something I was thinking of. In the morning, I'm going to wake you guys up early. I want you to somehow connect with Scott, Joe, Frank and Alan and run the hell out of here. I don't want you guys wherever we're going."

Eagle blinked at that.

"Take what you packed. I'm going to 'accidentally' put you in the wrong line, but you'll be in the right one. Once you find them, get the hell out of here." Ben gave Eagle his ID number and his phone number. "Call me when you get someplace safe. Snake knows the number for our friends, and he'll be able to call them and get you guys the hell out of there."

"Good," Eagle said tiredly. "And this is all going to happen-"

"Within less than twenty minutes," Ben nodded.

"'K, guess I better get a good night's sleep then," Eagle commented as he closed his eyes.

"Yeah. And don't eat breakfast. They're drugging the food."

Eagle's eyes widened. "Yeah. Breakfast not here. Got it."

"Good. I'm also going to go to sleep now. Also, since I'm not usually awake at this hour, look sullen in the morning, like I yelled at you. It'll make them think you're obedient too."

Eagle just loosely chuckled, "Since when am I ever obedient? Sure, no problem, you big meanie."

Even in the darkness, Eagle saw Ben give him the bird as he walked upstairs.

## break ##

Challenge: How soon are they raiding? Will Mr. Tracy's raid be able to help them?

Also, A/N: This story is much more like a crossover than I ever intended it to be, so while I am leaving it in the Alex Rider for this chapter, I am moving it to the Alex Rider & Thunderbirds for next chapter (sometime this week). You'll still be able to find it under my pen name, Writer With Sprite.  
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